Rula was born in Haifa, Israel in 1973 and then lived with her family in East Jerusalem. She was brought to Dar El-Tifel orphanage at the age of 5 after the death of her mother. She studied here and graduated in 1991. In 1993 she got a scholarship from the Italian government to study medicine. She received a degree in physiotherapy from Bologna University. She went back to school specializing in journalism and political science. She immediately started working for newspapers such as Il Resto del Carlino, Il Giorno e La Nazione and Il Messaggero. Her area of expertise is foreign affairs related to the Arab Israeli conflict and the uprising of Islamic movements.
In 2000, she started working in television where she became the first foreign anchorwoman broadcasting the 8pm news.
In 2004, she started her daily talk show, Ominibus. She interviewed the most important and prestigious personalities from Italy, Palestine, Israel, and Europe. These included: Silvio Berlusconi, ex prime minister, Massimo D’Alema, the president of the Parliament, Lamberto Dini, minister of foreign affairs in France, Bernard Kouchner, Palestinian President, Abu Mazen along with Nobel Prize winner El Baradei.
She worked on national television stations, Rai 1, Rai 2 and Rai News 24, hosting her own political talk shows. Also private channels like Channel 7, where she created a show about the international moratorium against the death penalty. In 2004 she was awarded her first prize from Media Watch for her courage in covering the Iraqi war. In 2005 she received the International Ischia Award for Best Journalist of the Year, presented to her by the President of the Republic, Carlo A’zeglio Ciampi.
In 2006, she became the co-presenter of Anno Zero, the most important and controversial political television show in Italy, together with Michele Santoro.
She produced and broadcasted a TV show in Egypt in 2009 where she interviewed influential people like the Lebanese author Elias Khoury, the minister of finance, Youssef Boutros-Ghali, and the minister of trade and economy Rashid Mohamed Rashid. This show was acclaimed as the most independent in the history of Egyptian television.
She has written three books, Miral, La promise d’Aswan, which obtained the International Fenice Europe Prize, and Divieto di soggiorno, a study on the history of immigration in Europe.
Rula speaks Italian, English, Arabic, and Hebrew fluently.
Recently, she wrote the screenplay for the film Miral based on her book. The film, directed by Julian Schnabel, is scheduled to premier at the 2010 Venice Film Festival.
RULA on Miral – the book and film…
Each story told in my book and in this movie is true. I changed names, I merged different personalities and characters—but everything I have told here I have seen with my own eyes. There is no space for imagination in the Middle East. Every day, something that is imposed on you in this place makes you decide who you are and what you have to do.
After I left Jerusalem for Europe, I felt that my childhood had been stolen. I understood that in order for me not to lose my identity I had to tell my story, I had to connect my past with my future because there are so many girls who have gone through and are still going through these same things. Miral is me…she’s also these girls. I wrote this book for all children, who deserve a chance, and for all the other Mirals who still live in Jerusalem.
In turning the book into this film, I appreciated the intellectual honesty and respect with which Julian treated these stories and characters. He asked me so many questions — who, where, what and why. He tried to grasp the subject in all its depth. When we started scouting the locations and casting the movie, he wanted to go everywhere. He wanted to see everything with his own eyes; he wanted to talk to people from every perspective. We went to Ramallah, to Jaffa, to the refugee camps. He wanted to understand the inner conflicts that split the Palestinian people. Before each take, he would always ask me: “Is this authentic? Does this seem right to you?”
Like Miral, there came a turning point for me at which I felt I had to scream against the injustice. Today, I can say that the love and values I received from my father Jamal Shaheen and Hind Husseini—who believed in the virtues of education—saved my life. Later, I had the opportunity as a journalist covering conflicts in Iraq, Kosovo and Lebanon, to understand that education is indeed the best weapon. This is what this movie is about. It shows how education can dismantle and disarm fanaticism.
It seems so often these days that the solutions considered are military—and yet, the only real hope for ordinary people trying to lead normal lives is diplomacy and peace. And diplomacy and peace prosper when ordinary people have access to education.
Paul Larudee was born to an Iranian Presbyterian minister and his American missionary spouse in 1946 and grew up in the American Midwest. He has a Ph.D. in linguistics from Georgetown University and spent 14 years in Arab countries as a contracted U.S. government advisor, Fulbright-Hays exchange lecturer, teacher, training administrator and graduate student.
Paul has visited the Palestinian region many times since 1965, including four times with the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led movement that applies nonviolent principles to resist Israeli human rights violations. Paul was among seven ISM volunteers wounded by Israeli gunfire in April, 2002 in an otherwise nonviolent attempt to help Palestinian families. In 2006, he was held in Israeli detention for two weeks while unsuccessfully appealing a decision to deny him entry. He helped organize nonviolent resistance in Lebanon during the 2006 Israeli invasion. He is one of the founders of the Free Gaza Movement, whose boats, on August 23, 2008, became the first in 41 years to enter Gaza by sea, breaking the Israeli naval blockade. He is also a founder of the Free Palestine Movement, which also seeks to challenge Israel’s blockade and denial of access to all of Palestine by sea, air and land.
Paul, a former student of Noam Chomsky, became a Professor of Linguistics himself and remains a good friend and colleague of Professor Chomsky. Working with the NorCal branch of the International Solidarity Movement, Paul is very much a believer in and practitioner of Gandhi’s principles of non-violence. Paul was one of the 5 USA delegates aboard the Sfendoni, a ship of the Freedom flotilla attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.
ABOUT THE GLOBAL MARCH TO JERUSALEM (GMJ)
On 30 March, 2012, one million or more people will march – peacefully and nonviolently, but with determination – to Jerusalem. The purpose of this march is to protest and defy Israeli attempts to prevent and restrict Palestinians and others from entering this city, and the abuse and denial of Palestinian human and political rights.
The GMJ is a coalition of organizations throughout the world, formed to implement this movement. It consists of geographical associations and international committees where the associations are represented. In addition, committees assigned to perform specific functions, such as media, finance and logistics, are created as needed.
GMJ MISSION STATEMENT
We intend to march peacefully from all parts of the globe to Jerusalem as Palestinians who have the right of access to the city, as solidarity brothers and sisters of those whose right of access is being violated, and in solidarity with political prisoners who cannot be there with us. Together we will reassert and affirm the Palestinian refugees’ Right of Return and right of access to Jerusalem and all of Palestine.
Our intent is not to harm any person, and in fact, we refuse to do so, regardless of what anyone may do to us. However, we also refuse to be deterred from our goal, and will persist until we reach it. We believe that good will and determination will ultimately overcome all obstacles in our path.
We ask all persons and institutions who care for human rights and justice to support our peaceful, nonviolent effort with whatever means are at their disposal: by participating as marchers, by volunteering their services to the project; by legal, official and diplomatic intervention; and by financial support.
Let us prove that people of good will who are determined to pursue peace based on justice have nothing to fear from each other. Where better to do so than the historic City of Peace?
Mary Ann Wright has been a career military woman, a State Department diplomat, and for the past few years an influential spokesperson in the anti-war movement. Ann Wright grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, and attended the University of Arkansas, where she holds a Master’s and a Law Degree. She also has a Master’s Degree in National Security Affairs from the US Naval War College. In her junior year at the University of Arkansas, she attended a three-week Army training program after meeting with a visiting Army recruiter. That experience helped inform her decision to join the service.
There she would remain for 13 years in active duty, with another 16 years in the Army reserves, retiring as a Colonel. Part of her work was special operations in civil affairs, in the event of troop invasions into countries like Iraq. Ann helped to develop, as she explained, “plans about how you interact with the civilian population, how you protect the facilities — sewage, water, electrical grids, libraries…It’s our obligation under the law of land warfare.” Ann requested a release from active duty from the Army and joined the State Department. For the next 16 years, she served as a foreign diplomat in countries such as Nicaragua, Somalia, Uzbekistan, and Sierra Leone. She was on the team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December, 2001, after the fall of the Taliban to US forces.
In all those years, Ann Wright was proud of her representation of America. However, on March 13, 2003, the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, Col.. Ann Wright sent a letter of resignation to then Secretary of State Colin Powell. She felt that without the authorization of the UN Security Council, the US invasion and occupation of a Muslim, oil-rich country would be a disaster. Only two other State Department officials resigned at that time over the imminent invasion. In an interview, Ann explained that, in Foreign Service, “Your job is to implement the policies of an administration…if you strongly disagree with any administration’s policies, and wish to speak out, your only option is to resign. I understood that and that’s one of the reasons I resigned — to give myself the freedom to talk out.”
Since resigning, patriotism for Ann Wright has been as an anti-war activist. She worked with Cindy Sheehan organizing Camp Casey, and appeared in the documentary “Uncovered: The Truth About the Iraq War”. She travels and lectures on foreign policy issues. She has been arrested five times in the past year for protesting Bush’s policies, and has referred to herself cheerfully as a “felon for peace”. This retired Army Colonel has also recently been temporarily banned not only from two military bases for placing postcards there about a showing of the documentary “Sir, No Sir”, but from the US Capitol area (her case is still pending), and the National Press Club (this a lifetime ban), for voicing opinions and questions concerning Bush’s policies and the Iraq war.
She is coauthor with Susan Dixon of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience”, the stories of those in the Bush administration and other governments who have had the courage to speak out, to be published November 2007 by Koa Books.
Ann was a passenger aboard the American boat The Audacity of Hope which was part of a larger Freedom Flotilla bound for Gaza this year but was prevented from going to Gaza according to this news piece from www.UStoGaza.org:
After a two hour stand off at sea, the U.S. Boat to Gaza – The Audacity of Hope – was seized by the Greek Coast Guard and forced to return to the port of Piraeus under military escort. The boat’s captain has been put in jail, charged with disturbing sea traffic–which includes endangering the lives of those on the ships– and disobeying a police order to remain at dock. The crew is being detained on the boat, which is being held at a military dock just outside Athens. Most of the 36 passengers remain on the ship in solidarity with the captain and crew.
Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Colonel, responded strongly to the arrest of the American captain of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. “I think it’s outrageous what the Greek government is doing to our captain who was taking a group of Americans to challenge the illegal Israeli blockade. We call on the Greek government to release our Captain and dismiss all charges.”
Yonatan Shapira, a crew member on The Audacity of Hope and former Israeli Air Force captain, said the captain of the U.S. Boat should be praised, not condemned for his actions. “The captain acted out of concern for the safety of the passengers and boat by taking us away from the Greek port where other flotilla boats are being sabotaged,” Shapira said.
After five days of stalling, the Greek authorities produced the results of the inspection of the boat, which took place on Monday, June 27. The Greek government inspected the boat on the basis of an anonymous complaint alleging that the boat is not seaworthy. The anonymous complaint later turned out to have been filed by the Israel Law Center. The list of infractions cited on the inspection report included such things as technical details regarding the construction material of the hull and the fact that the private inspection report emailed to the authorities was unsigned. “None of these alleged infractions are actually regulations that boats are required to meet,” said group’s Greek lawyer Emmanuel Stephanakis. “It’s obvious that these are politically motivated, baseless charges calculated to stop the U.S. Boat to Gaza from sailing.”
“This shameful chapter in Greek history is symbolized by Prime Minister Netanyahu thanking his Greek counterpart Prime MInister Papandreou for his cooperation in helping thwart the flotilla, and by the fully-armed and masked Greek commandos at sea, pointing their guns at unarmed American civilians singing “We are a gentle, loving people,” says passenger Medea Benjamin.
The other boats in the flotilla that are docked in Greece have been denied permission to sail due to a variety of bureaucratic obstacles the Greek authorities have thrown in their way. Greece’s Civil Protection Authority confirmed Saturday the ban on departures of ships “with Greek and foreign flags from Greek ports to the maritime area of Gaza” was in place until further notice. Two of the boats have had physical damage done to them as well. All vow to pressure the Greek government to grant them permission to sail, and have activated their international networks. In the United States, the phones at the Greek Embassy and Consulates were so busy that callers could not get through.
While deeply disappointed that they have not yet been able to sail to Gaza, the passengers feel they have been successful at exposing the ongoing plight of the people of Gaza and the inhumanity of the Israeli government. “The success of the flotilla is shown by the huge expenditure of financial and personnel resources by the Israeli government to counter 10 civilian, unarmed ships with 300 citizen activists who simply want to sail to Gaza out of concern for the people of Gaza,” saya jazz musician and passenger Richard Lopez.
Personal Bio: I obtained a license as a psychoanalyst in 1988. Since then, I have mostly worked with young adults suffering from psychosis or personality disorders. I have also worked with refugees (in Sweden and Britain) who suffer from PTSD and other anxiety disorders, depression or psychosis after having been exposed to wars, terror and torture.
I worked for MSF – Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in Hebron, Palesine 2010 to May 2011 in a mental heath project. The target population for the project are people who have been traumatized by the conflict. The objective is to offer psychotherapy or psychological support. There were also social and medical components in the project. In addition to the Hebron project, MSF has mental health projects also in Gaza and Nabalus.
It is difficult to mention an average patient. They are men who have been arrested and/or imprisoned, their wives, mothers and families, many patients are children. The medical services in Hebron Governate are functioning quite well, but the psychological services are very weak – next to non existent, and the need is huge.
As an employee of MSF, I worked for a year in Palestine but am now back in Sweden and taking this opportunity to share my experiences as a doctor formerly with MSF.
Basima Farhat is a writer, a poet and as a master healer in the art of Reiki. She teaches meditative practice in the area as a spiritual counselor. Her Corporate workshop S.O.S., Stop Ongoing Stress deals with creative change in high-pressure work areas and she is currently working on a number of projects in the field of human potential development. Basima has recently completed a screenplay call the Tatesville Casket Company whose subject matter deals with the death and dying process.
A well know poet and peace activist in the Michigan area, Basima has been invited by numerous organizations for poetry readings within the cultural community, most recently reading in the same venue as Tony Award winning poet Suhair Hamad, sponsored by the Palestine Office a grassroots peace organization that has hosted many political leaders, such as Dr Mustafa Barghouti, Micheal Tarazi, and Allison Weir.
This Summer 2011, Basima journeyed to Washington DC to lobby on behalf of Palestine. Meeting such notables as Ralph Nader, and several congress members she will share her experiences of this visit and a lifetime of efforts publicizing and working on behalf of the rights of the Palestinian people.
With a broad background in finance, management, and political innovation, Laura Wells is ready to take the lead in California to go beyond the partisan deadlocks and interest-group politics of Sacramento that have divided us socially and ruined us economically.
Laura aims to solve California’s problems without resorting to the tradition of failed politics of desperation, demagoguery, gamesmanship, or fear that have landed us where we are now. Laura Wells makes positive changes happen by building on strengths and positive vision, not by manipulating weaknesses or using evasive rhetoric to disguise reality or avoid painful decisions.
In her professional life, she has taken stalled projects, sluggish organizations, and unworkable systems and turned them into smooth running, goal friendly, cooperative ventures. Laura’s level-headed leadership has been fully developed in the contrasting worlds of high finance and non-profit organizations; in small businesses and large corporations; in the public sector and the private sector. In her years as a professional financial systems manager, Laura mastered the intricate worlds of stocks, bonds, pension funds, and real estate mortgages.
Taking the initiative to go beyond the status-quo politics of vested interests, Laura participated in five international delegations to Canada and South America to study innovations in participatory democracy and new constitutions. As a committed citizen-activist, she worked in a range of volunteer and professional capacities to strengthen a coalition for alternatives to pesticides, prepare the unemployed for living wage work, and convert a navy base to civilian use.
These experiences strengthened Laura’s belief that traditional political leadership has had far too narrow a vision of the future, and that we need to return to people-centered values to re-build California as a beacon state of thriving communities, humane institutions, educated citizens, and sustainable lifestyles and businesses.
In her quest for institutional alternatives to the failing strategies of the nation’s two-party system, she served in numerous county and state-level leadership positions of the Green Party of California. In 2002 and 2006, she ran two high-achieving campaigns for State Controller.
Born and raised in Michigan, Laura was a scholarship student at Wayne State University in Detroit, where she learned “What’s good for General Motors” is not good for the U.S.A. She saw that huge corporations such as GM did not give back sufficiently to the neighborhoods they impacted. Housing, schools, the environment, and jobs were destroyed, not constructed. Laura learned that local businesses are the ones that create jobs and strong communities, and she has made it a priority to support them ever since.
In college she majored in foreign languages and was honored by election to the Phi Beta Kappa society in 1969 when she graduated from Wayne State University. She then mastered her professional skills in the world of finance, in business analysis, computer programming, and managing complex financial systems, and earned a Masters of Education at Antioch University.
California has been her home for more than 30 years. When she married, her daughter Natalia was born in Oakland. When her daughter was 12 the family of three went on a six-month trip around the United States, visiting 30 states in a vintage RV. While home-schooling their daughter, the family visited many historical and natural sites, and deepened their respect for America’s amazing beauty and diversity – both in nature and in people. Laura continues to enjoy living in Oakland – a city of far greater riches and promise than its mainstream media reputation leads the public to believe.
She is currently engaged to Charles Goodwin, a retired counselor in the juvenile probation division. That connection is a source of ongoing inspiration when young people approach them in a restaurant and say, “You counseled me when I was young, and now I’ve turned my life around.” Such experiences are important reminders that even tough situations can be changed for the better, and that everyone can be part of the new solutions we need.
Her values are the ones Californians share: optimism about the possibilities of the future; a safe and inspiring natural environment, affordable access to health care, a fair and world-class education system at all levels, and a belief that California can be a world leader in innovative solutions to complex problems in business, finance, and infrastructure.
A prolific American Indian scholar/activist, Ward Churchill is a founding member of the Rainbow Council of Elders, and longtime member of the leadership council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado. In addition to his numerous works on indigenous history, he has written extensively on U.S. foreign policy and the repression of political dissent, including the FBI’s COINTELPRO operations against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. Five of his more than 20 books have received human rights awards.
Former Chair of the Ethnic Studies Department, until July 2007 he was a tenured Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado/Boulder, where he received numerous awards for his teaching, scholarship and service. Professor Churchill is currently suing the University of Colorado for violating his First Amendment rights by firing him in retaliation for his observations on 9/11.
PAUL LARUDEE was born to an Iranian Presbyterian minister and his American missionary spouse in 1946 and grew up in the American Midwest. He has a Ph.D. in linguistics from Georgetown University and spent 14 years in Arab countries as a contracted U.S. government advisor, Fulbright-Hays exchange lecturer, teacher, training administrator and graduate student.
Paul has visited the Palestinian region many times since 1965, including four times with the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led movement that applies nonviolent principles to resist Israeli human rights violations. Paul was among seven ISM volunteers wounded by Israeli gunfire in April, 2002 in an otherwise nonviolent attempt to help Palestinian families. In 2006, he was held in Israeli detention for two weeks while unsuccessfully appealing a decision to deny him entry. He helped organize nonviolent resistance in Lebanon during the 2006 Israeli invasion. He is one of the founders of the Free Gaza Movement, whose boats, on August 23, 2008, became the first in 41 years to enter Gaza by sea, breaking the Israeli naval blockade. He is also a founder of the Free Palestine Movement, which also seeks to challenge Israel’s blockade and denial of access to all of Palestine by sea, air and land.
Paul, a former student of Noam Chomsky, became a Professor of Linguistics himself and remains a good friend and colleague of Professor Chomsky. Working with the NorCal branch of the International Solidarity Movement, Paul is very much a believer in and practitioner of Gandhi’s principles of non-violence. Paul was one of the 5 USA delegates aboard the Sfendoni, a ship of the Freedom flotilla attempting to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.
When Israeli commandos boarded the Sfendoni in 2010, Paul non-violently resisted, refused to sign any papers without his lawyer and as a result the Israelis tased, tied-up, twisted his limbs, slammed his head into concrete repeatedly, and hit him with a flash bomb. Paul suffered multiple bruises, 2 black eyes, but refused to be treated by Israeli doctors as he did not trust them, especially since he suffers from Diabetes and needed special treatment and compatible medication. Paul was kept in prison for two days at Givon Prison, Ramle, Israel.
In Paul’s own words:
“The wrath of other nations might be a reasonable price for us to bear if Israel were pursuing a policy of peace with justice. It is not. Israeli policy is and always has been to apply pain and suffering to get what it wants, whether by torturing and killing humanitarian aid volunteers, by maintaining its cruel blockade against 1.5 million Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, or by making millions of Palestinians homeless, confiscating their lands, and destroying lives.
Neither Americans nor Israelis would stand still for such treatment, so why should Turks, Greeks, Palestinians or anyone else? Why should Israeli thugs be allowed to push around and abuse ordinary citizens anywhere?
Once again, Paul returns to Gaza as an American Delegate as part of the 2011 Freedom Flotilla along with other passengers such as US Ambassador Samuel Hart, William Jimbo Simmons – American Indian Movement leader, Joe Meadors – US Veteran and survivor of the USS Liberty, and Sister Patricia Chaffee – a Dominican Sister.
PAT CHAFFEE is a Dominican Sister. She has been active in human rights advocacy for thirty years. She visited the West Bank in 2006 and Gaza in 2009. In 2010 she participated in the aborted Gaza Freedom March, marooned in Cairo. Her motive for joining the flotilla is to tell the people of Gaza that she is opposed to her country’s oppression. She is committed to nonviolence, under any circumstances.
JOE MEADORS is an American former U.S. Navy signalman, who survived Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty, June 8, 1967, which killed 34 Americans and wounded 174, including Joe. He is married to Jean Meadors; they live in Corpus Christi, Texas. He is a member of the U.S.S. Liberty Veterans Association. In 2010, he was a passenger on the Sfendoni in the Gaza Freedom flotilla with Ambassador Edward Peck, captured by the Israelis, and released.
JIMBO SIMMONS is a member of the Choctaw nation and of the Leadership Council of the American Indian Movement West (AIM-WEST), which resists colonization, respects traditional knowledge and self-determination, and raises awareness on issues that concern Indians of the Americas, from racism to protection of sacred sites, the rights of the child, treaties, political prisoners, police brutality, immigration and militarization, climate change and the United Nations General Assembly “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He is in solidarity with Palestinians and all indigenous peoples that are subjected to expulsion and ethnic cleansing.
There’s the Freedom of Information Act, and then there’s Ventura’s way.
The official spin on numerous government programs is flat-out bullshit, according to Jesse Ventura. In this incredible collection of actual government documents, Ventura, the ultimate non- partisan truth-seeker, proves it beyond any doubt. He and Dick Russell walk readers through 63 of the most incriminating programs to reveal what really happens behind the closed doors. In addition to providing original government data, Ventura discusses what it really means and how regular Americans can stop criminal behavior at the top levels of government and in the media.
Among the cases discussed:
• The CIA’s top-secret program to control human behavior
• Operation Northwoods—the military plan to hijack airplanes and blame it on Cuban terrorists
• The discovery of a secret Afghan archive—information that never left the boardroom
• Potentially deadly healthcare cover-ups, including a dengue fever outbreak
• What the Department of Defense knows about our food supply—but is keeping mum
Although these documents are now in the public domain, the powers that be would just as soon they stay under wraps. Ventura’s research and commentary sheds new light on what they’re not telling you—and why it matters.
About the Author
Jesse Ventura is the former governor of Minnesota and author of several bestselling books, including Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me! and American Conspiracies. Ventura is the host of the television show Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura on truTV. He lives in Minnesota and Mexico.
Dick Russell is a nationally respected activist, environmentalist, and author of critically acclaimed books, including, with Jesse Ventura, The New York Times bestsellers Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me! and American Conspiracies. He is also the author of On the Trail of the JFK Assassins and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Russell is a prolific publisher in many of the nation’s top magazines and has been a guest on many national TV and radio programs, including the Joan Rivers Show and NBC Nightly News. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Ariel Vegosen is a conflict resolution specialist, professional dialogue facilitator, ropes course instructor, youth educator, peace activist, media wizard, organic therapist,and world traveler. Some of her most inspirational work includes Seeds of Peace, Code Pink Women for Peace, and the political theater piece An Olive on the Seder Plate about Jewish people wrestling with the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. She currently works for Mintwood Media, a progressive PR collective serving the peace movement, organic and Fair Trade farmer movement, and other social justice organizations. Ariel has lead numerous interfaith dialogue based programs, organized and facilitated numerous programs for inner-city and at-risk youth, including facilitation of 15 teenagers on a social justice program in Uganda. Ariel enjoys working in organic gardens, teaching environmental education to youth, learning wilderness skills, performing poetry, motion theater, and aerial dance. She strives to end war, violence, and patriarchy. Ariel received her BA from the University of Maryland and a certificate in experiential education from the Brandeis-Bardin Institute.
Recently, at a demonstration against AIPAC in Washington DC, 5 protestors including Ariel Vegosen disrupted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s AIPAC conference speech.
In response to Netanyahu’s claim that returning to the 1967 borders would be “indefensible,” the protesters called out that various aspects of Israel’s policy were indefensible such as “Bulldozing Homes is Indefensible!” “Silencing Dissent is Indefensible!”. Ariel shouted, “Occupying land is indefensible!” while being escorted out of the building.
“As a young Jewish person it is important for me to stand up today and tell Netanyahu and AIPAC that their voices do not represent me,” Ariel Vegosen, 30, from New York, added. “I will not allow my faith to be misused as a weapon, covering up the theft of Palestinians’ homes and livelihoods. Judaism teaches me to stand up when I see oppression— discrimination is not a Jewish value and does not make Israel safer. Occupying Palestinian land is indefensible.”
As a U.S. Intelligence Asset, Susan Lindauer covered anti-terrorism at the Iraqi Embassy in New York from 1996 up to the invasion. Independent sources have confirmed that she gave advance warning about the 9/11 attack. She also started talks for the Lockerbie Trial with Libyan diplomats. Shortly after requesting to testify before Congress about successful elements of Pre-War Intelligence, Lindauer became one of the first non-Arab Americans arrested on the Patriot Act as an “Iraqi Agent.” She was accused of warning her second cousin, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Secretary of State Colin Powell that War with Iraq would have catastrophic consequences. Gratis of the Patriot Act, her indictment was loaded with “secret charges” and “secret evidence.” She was subjected to one year in prison on Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas without a trial or hearing, and threatened with indefinite detention and forcible drugging to shut her up. After five years of indictment without a conviction or guilty plea, the Justice Department dismissed all charges five days before President Obama’s inauguration. Lindauer has written a book Extreme Prejudice: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq about her experience.
The mission of AFP is to mobilize Afghans world-wide (internal and abroad) to take a firm stance against war and occupation in Afghanistan and demand Afghan people be allowed their right to self determination. To achieve our vision, we call for the following:
MIRA DABIT is a Palestinian youth activist and folkloric storyteller, who lived and worked in north and south Ireland after receiving her BA in psychology and sociology from Birzeit University. She has returned to the West Bank where she is organizing theater projects for youth, along with other initiatives that strive to make marginalized voices heard.
Hanna Qassis was born in Jerusalem in 1983 and is from the town of Birzeit, Palestine. He graduated from Birzeit University in 2006 with a BA in Business Administration, and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in International Studies, also at Birzeit University.
In addition to working for the Academy for Educational Development in the West Bank, Hanna is a political and youth activist and volunteers with several Palestinian civil society organizations.
The speakers will talk about their inspiring struggle for education and for a just and democratic society. “The Right for an Education” tour, sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, will take place from March 28 to April 27 in cities and campuses across the country.
From East Jerusalem, Mira Dabit, an activist with the Right to Education campaign and an alumna of Birzeit University (Ramallah), will anchor the tour. She will be joined by Hanna Qassis. They will share with American audiences their experiences living and struggling to educate themselves under Israeli occupation, where many of their human rights –including the right to education–are denied. “The checkpoints, the wall, arbitrary arrests make something as simple as going to school a near impossibility for many Palestinians in the West Bank. The situation in Gaza is even worse – they can’t go abroad, they can’t come to the West Bank, and their universities are repeatedly bombed,” said Ms. Dabit. “We are coming to the United States to call on the academic communities here to support us in our resistance to these policies with grassroots, non-violent tactics, such as boycotts, divestment and sanctions.”
The tour, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, will visit New York, Boston, Ithaca, Washington DC, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Seattle San Francisco Bay Area, Albuquerque, Tucson, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles
Author/Filmmaker – Kevin returns for an update about the international tribunal into allegations of decades of abuse and mass graves of Native children in Canada.
Kevin Annett (Eagle Strong Voice) is a community minister, author and award-winning film maker who lives and works with low income and aboriginal people in Vancouver, Canada. For nearly two decades, he has led the campaign to expose and bring to trial the churches and governments responsible for Genocide and other crimes against humanity across North America.
Kevin is the co-founder of The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS), which has summoned Pope Joseph Ratzinger and others to appear before its opening session in September in London. Kevin is a consultant to many indigenous and human rights groups around the world and is in constant demand as a public lecturer.
“We will bring to light the hidden works of darkness and drive falsity to the bottomless pit. For all doctrines founded in fraud or nursed by fear shall be confounded by Truth.”
- Kevin’s ancestor Peter Annett, writing in The Free Inquirer, October 17, 1761, just before being imprisoned by the English crown for “blasphemous libel”
“I gave Kevin Annett his Indian name, Eagle Strong Voice, in 2004 when I adopted him into our Anishinabe Nation. He carries that name proudly because he is doing the job he was sent to do, to tell his people of their wrongs. He speaks strongly and with truth. He speaks for our stolen and murdered children. I ask everyone to listen to him and welcome him.”
Scott Horton is the host of Antiwar Radio for KAOS Radio 95.9 FM in Austin, Texas, KUCR 88.3 FM in Riverside, California and Antiwar.com, where he is also assistant editor. Horton conducts interviews with journalists, politicians, pundits, lawyers and experts on foreign policy and war-time law. Guests have included Eric Margolis, Ron Paul, Ray McGovern, Daniel Ellsberg, Russel Means, Harry Browne, John Cusack, Pat Buchanan, Noam Chomsky, Lew Rockwell, Patrick Cockburn, James Bamford, Sibel Edmonds, Glenn Greenwald, pseudonymous Matthew Alexander, Andrew Bacevich, Robert A. Pape, and near weekly appearances by Gareth Porter.
Horton won the Austin Chronicle’s “Best of Austin” award “Best Iraq War Insight and Play by Play” for Antiwar Radio in 2007.
Horton hosted six shows in Austin, Texas, including Say it Ain’t So on controversial micro broadcast station Free Radio Austin which was followed by The Way Sh*t Is, The Best I Can Tell, the Philip Dru Interviews, the Weekend Interview Show and KAOS Report. He also hosts a weekly broadcast for Pacifica Radio’s KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles
In 2004, Horton served as foreign policy adviser to Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik.
Rula was born in Haifa, Israel in 1973 and then lived with her family in East Jerusalem. She was brought to Dar El-Tifel orphanage at the age of 5 after the death of her mother. She studied here and graduated in 1991. In 1993 she got a scholarship from the Italian government to study medicine. She received a degree in physiotherapy from Bologna University. She went back to school specializing in journalism and political science. She immediately started working for newspapers such as Il Resto del Carlino, Il Giorno e La Nazione and Il Messaggero. Her area of expertise is foreign affairs related to the Arab Israeli conflict and the uprising of Islamic movements.
She has written three books, Miral, La promise d’Aswan, which obtained the International Fenice Europe Prize, and Divieto di soggiorno, a study on the history of immigration in Europe.
Paul Larudee was born to an Iranian Presbyterian minister and his American missionary spouse in 1946 and grew up in the American Midwest. He has a Ph.D. in linguistics from Georgetown University and spent 14 years in Arab countries as a contracted U.S. government advisor, Fulbright-Hays exchange lecturer, teacher, training administrator and graduate student.
Mary Ann Wright has been a career military woman, a State Department diplomat, and for the past few years an influential spokesperson in the anti-war movement. Ann Wright grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, and attended the University of Arkansas, where she holds a Master’s and a Law Degree. She also has a Master’s Degree in National Security Affairs from the US Naval War College. In her junior year at the University of Arkansas, she attended a three-week Army training program after meeting with a visiting Army recruiter. That experience helped inform her decision to join the service. 
Personal Bio: I obtained a license as a psychoanalyst in 1988. Since then, I have mostly worked with young adults suffering from psychosis or personality disorders. I have also worked with refugees (in Sweden and Britain) who suffer from PTSD and other anxiety disorders, depression or psychosis after having been exposed to wars, terror and torture.
Basima Farhat is a writer, a poet and as a master healer in the art of Reiki. She teaches meditative practice in the area as a spiritual counselor. Her Corporate workshop S.O.S., Stop Ongoing Stress deals with creative change in high-pressure work areas and she is currently working on a number of projects in the field of human potential development. Basima has recently completed a screenplay call the Tatesville Casket Company whose subject matter deals with the death and dying process.
With a broad background in finance, management, and political innovation, Laura Wells is ready to take the lead in California to go beyond the partisan deadlocks and interest-group politics of Sacramento that have divided us socially and ruined us economically.
A prolific American Indian scholar/activist, Ward Churchill is a founding member of the Rainbow Council of Elders, and longtime member of the leadership council of the American Indian Movement of Colorado. In addition to his numerous works on indigenous history, he has written extensively on U.S. foreign policy and the repression of political dissent, including the FBI’s COINTELPRO operations against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. Five of his more than 20 books have received human rights awards. 
PAUL LARUDEE was born to an Iranian Presbyterian minister and his American missionary spouse in 1946 and grew up in the American Midwest. He has a Ph.D. in linguistics from Georgetown University and spent 14 years in Arab countries as a contracted U.S. government advisor, Fulbright-Hays exchange lecturer, teacher, training administrator and graduate student.
PAT CHAFFEE is a Dominican Sister. She has been active in human rights advocacy for thirty years. She visited the West Bank in 2006 and Gaza in 2009. In 2010 she participated in the aborted Gaza Freedom March, marooned in Cairo. Her motive for joining the flotilla is to tell the people of Gaza that she is opposed to her country’s oppression. She is committed to nonviolence, under any circumstances. 
JOE MEADORS is an American former U.S. Navy signalman, who survived Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty, June 8, 1967, which killed 34 Americans and wounded 174, including Joe. He is married to Jean Meadors; they live in Corpus Christi, Texas. He is a member of the U.S.S. Liberty Veterans Association. In 2010, he was a passenger on the Sfendoni in the Gaza Freedom flotilla with Ambassador Edward Peck, captured by the Israelis, and released. 
JIMBO SIMMONS is a member of the Choctaw nation and of the Leadership Council of the American Indian Movement West (AIM-WEST), which resists colonization, respects traditional knowledge and self-determination, and raises awareness on issues that concern Indians of the Americas, from racism to protection of sacred sites, the rights of the child, treaties, political prisoners, police brutality, immigration and militarization, climate change and the United Nations General Assembly “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He is in solidarity with Palestinians and all indigenous peoples that are subjected to expulsion and ethnic cleansing. 
There’s the Freedom of Information Act, and then there’s Ventura’s way.
Ariel Vegosen is a conflict resolution specialist, professional dialogue facilitator, ropes course instructor, youth educator, peace activist, media wizard, organic therapist,and world traveler. Some of her most inspirational work includes Seeds of Peace, Code Pink Women for Peace, and the political theater piece An Olive on the Seder Plate about Jewish people wrestling with the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. She currently works for Mintwood Media, a progressive PR collective serving the peace movement, organic and Fair Trade farmer movement, and other social justice organizations. Ariel has lead numerous interfaith dialogue based programs, organized and facilitated numerous programs for inner-city and at-risk youth, including facilitation of 15 teenagers on a social justice program in Uganda. Ariel enjoys working in organic gardens, teaching environmental education to youth, learning wilderness skills, performing poetry, motion theater, and aerial dance. She strives to end war, violence, and patriarchy. Ariel received her BA from the University of Maryland and a certificate in experiential education from the Brandeis-Bardin Institute. 
As a U.S. Intelligence Asset, Susan Lindauer covered anti-terrorism at the Iraqi Embassy in New York from 1996 up to the invasion. Independent sources have confirmed that she gave advance warning about the 9/11 attack. She also started talks for the Lockerbie Trial with Libyan diplomats. Shortly after requesting to testify before Congress about successful elements of Pre-War Intelligence, Lindauer became one of the first non-Arab Americans arrested on the Patriot Act as an “Iraqi Agent.” She was accused of warning her second cousin, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Secretary of State Colin Powell that War with Iraq would have catastrophic consequences. Gratis of the Patriot Act, her indictment was loaded with “secret charges” and “secret evidence.” She was subjected to one year in prison on Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas without a trial or hearing, and threatened with indefinite detention and forcible drugging to shut her up. After five years of indictment without a conviction or guilty plea, the Justice Department dismissed all charges five days before President Obama’s inauguration. Lindauer has written a book Extreme Prejudice: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq about her experience.
MIRA DABIT is a Palestinian youth activist and folkloric storyteller, who lived and worked in north and south Ireland after receiving her BA in psychology and sociology from Birzeit University. She has returned to the West Bank where she is organizing theater projects for youth, along with other initiatives that strive to make marginalized voices heard.
Hanna Qassis was born in Jerusalem in 1983 and is from the town of Birzeit, Palestine. He graduated from Birzeit University in 2006 with a BA in Business Administration, and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in International Studies, also at Birzeit University.
Kevin Annett (Eagle Strong Voice) is a community minister, author and award-winning film maker who lives and works with low income and aboriginal people in Vancouver, Canada. For nearly two decades, he has led the campaign to expose and bring to trial the churches and governments responsible for Genocide and other crimes against humanity across North America. 
Scott Horton is the host of Antiwar Radio for KAOS Radio 95.9 FM in Austin, Texas, KUCR 88.3 FM in Riverside, California and Antiwar.com, where he is also assistant editor. Horton conducts interviews with journalists, politicians, pundits, lawyers and experts on foreign policy and war-time law. Guests have included Eric Margolis, Ron Paul, Ray McGovern, Daniel Ellsberg, Russel Means, Harry Browne, John Cusack, Pat Buchanan, Noam Chomsky, Lew Rockwell, Patrick Cockburn, James Bamford, Sibel Edmonds, Glenn Greenwald, pseudonymous Matthew Alexander, Andrew Bacevich, Robert A. Pape, and near weekly appearances by Gareth Porter.
