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Local Group to Rally Sunday at State Capitol 'Salute to Israel'
Local Group to Rally Sunday at State Capitol 'Salute to Israel'
Local group to rally Sunday at State Capitol 'Salute to Israel', charges event is like a 'Salute to Apartheid'
Organizers of the local chapter of the Palestinian American Congress plan to hold a rally SUNDAY, May 11 at 12:30 p.m. at 10th & Capitol, next to a "Salute to Israel at 60" celebration to remind the public that the celebrated event marks "al Nakba," the catastrophe for the Palestinian people.
In the founding of Israel as a Jewish state in 1948, Zionist colonists forcibly expelled nearly 800,000 Palestinians (over two-third of the indigenous population) from their homes and property. Over 400 villages were destroyed and their names changed as though they had never existed. Today there are over 5 million Palestinian refugees; the oldest and longest refuge population according to Human Rights Watch.
"This rally is to call attention to 60 years of horrendous suffering and oppression of the Palestinian people," said organizer Yassar Dahbour. "Israel continues to violate the human rights of Palestinians, including stealing their lands, bulldozing their homes, restricting their ability to move and to earn a living, and denying these refugees their legal right (under U.N. Resolution 194) to return to their homes and lands. The international community has been complicit in Israel's crimes, either through silence or through direct economic, military, and political support."
"The 'Salute to Israel' would be like having a 'Salute to Apartheid South Africa'" said Sacramento peace activist Maggie Coulter.
"I find it very disturbing that State Senator Darryl Steinberg is championing the Apartheid State of Israel, which has made the West Bank and Gaza into Warsaw ghettos and Bantustans. I think many Americans don't understand that Israel was founded by ethnic cleansing and today is using our tax dollars to imprison, humiliate, and torture these people whose desire is the same as indigenous people everywhere: they want their basic human rights."
The Palestinian American Congress is a national grass roots organization that defends and represents the interests of Palestinian Americans. Its current member base is distributed over 22 chapters throughout the United States. For more information, please contact the local chapter at (916) 801-1118.
judythpiazza@newsblaze.com
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