From GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 

We were asked by our friends of Ta'ayush to forward the following call. Among several simultaneous humanitarian initiatives this one seems especially significant.

Help Save Rafah Families From Hunger

Ta'ayush (Jewish-Palestinian partnership) launches a donation campaign for families living in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip. These families have lost their property and sources of sustenance as a result of the siege and destruction of this last year. The total closure of the Gaza Strip prevents us from meeting these people, but it cannot stop us from building a bridge of solidarity with them.

Several Facts:
During this last year the Gaza Strip has been under total siege. The Strip's economy, which was heavily dependent on labor inside Israel or in Israeli factories, has been severely damaged. Until last year, 24,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip worked in Israel with permits (and many more without). During the first months of the Al-Aqsa intifada workers were totally forbidden from entering Israel, and since last April the number of work permits has been less than 1600. The division of the Gaza Strip into three separate zones has prevented many from working inside the Strip as well. In addition, Israel has stopped all export of local products to the West Bank, to Israel and abroad, thus causing further damage to the Gaza Strip farmers. The level of unemployment there is now over 50%.

The Rafah area, which is located near a big settlement block, has been damaged especially hard. Rafah is frequently disconnected from Gaza, there have been wide restrictions over fishing areas, access to the agricultural lands of the Al -Mawassi area has been forbidden, and above all, houses have been demolished, trees uprooted, and tilled land ?uncovered?. All of this has created (almost) impossible living conditions. During the last six months the IDF has demolished 311 houses in the area, most of them with all their contents. Many families were left with nothing but tents and some basic kitchen equipment supplied by UNRWA and the ICRC.

It seem that things are getting worse and worse everyday now!

The donations which will be collected by "Ta'ayush", will be handed over to Khalil Shaheen, a human rights activist from Gaza. Khalil has volunteered to distribute the donations according to the families? needy conditions. He will provide us with a list of sums each family gets, along with signatures of family members confirming this.

For more information about the situation in the Gaza Strip, please consult the Palestinian Center for Human rights? website: www.pchrgaza.org

Even the smallest amount is significant!

Please send cheques to Anat Matar, 33 Bernstein-Cohen St., Ramat-Hasharon 47213, Israel (payable to Anat Matar), or deposit money directly into Bank Hadoar account no. 2836805 (in which case please notify Anat by snail-mail or E- mail about your donation). If you would like to make personal contact with the families please inform.

For more information:

 Anat Matar, 03-5408977, matar@post.tau.ac.il
Tamar Pelleg-Sryck, 03-6421859, tamarpel@netvision.net.il
Yaron Caspi, 08-9470152, yaronc@weizmann.ac.il

If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can send a check or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece of paper, to: Gush Shalom pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033.
NB: Don't do it via New Israel Fund. They "had to" drop us.

For more about Gush Shalom you are invited to visit our renewed website: http://www.gush-shalom.org/

NB: Did you already sign the Petition to Free Palestinian Child Political prisoners? http://www.PetitionOnline.com/dcips/petition.html