Vietnam Resistance Peace Event

On October 15, 1965, the National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States. On the same date in 1969, hundreds of thousands of people took part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the country.

From 2:00 until 4:00 pm on Sunday, October 15, 2006, 20 peace organizations (including Northwest Peace and Justice Movement) will demonstrate near the home of Senator Arlen Specter on Schoolhouse Lane (between Henry Avenue and Gypsy Lane) in East Falls. They will ask Specter to author a bill like HB 4232 which will cut off all Pentagon funding in Iraq (the current Vietnam), except money needed for an orderly withdrawal of all U.S. troops.


On Tuesday 12 Sep, the NW Peace and Justice Movement featured:

Combatant for peace.

Our guest speaker was Souliman al-Khatib, a Palestinian member of Combatants for Peace. Khatib joined the armed Palestinian resistance at age 12 as a member of Fattah. He was one of those kids you've seen throwing rocks at Israeli tanks.

Khatib was arrested at age 14 and spent 10 years in jail, where he learned about other types of revolution like the Indian struggle led by Gandhi. He also read about Nelson Mandela and the anti-aparthied revolution in South Africa. This changed his idea of struggle in general. Khatib was also one of the Palestinian militants who joined Israeli "refusers" on the historic Breaking the Ice expedition to Antarctica in 2003. He established in 2004 the Center for Peace and Dialogue in Ramallah on the West Bank. Finally, Khatib and three other Palestinians began meeting in Bethlehem with Israeli refusers.

Since that time, Israeli and Palestinian fighters, who have renounced violence, have been meeting -- at first secretly. In June 2005, they publicly announced their new organization, Combatants for Peace, which had around 200 members from each side.

In response to one question, Khatib explained, "The goal of Combatants for Peace is to end the Israeli occupation through nonviolence and to end the violence between both sides." He said that they have many forms of resistance to make their point, from small group discussions to large demonstrations. There are also monthly meetings in Jerusalem with 50 ex-fighters from each side.

In one type of action, their Israeli and Palestinian members approached an Israeli Army checkpoint from the two opposing sides to demonstrate for peace and free travel. They have also held demonstrations on both sides of the wall [built by Israel] near Ramallah, and the Israeli Army disbursed them by shooting rubber bullets.

They attempt to present themselves in equal numbers of Israelis and Palestinians, when in public. Khatib has been joined on his speaking tour by Yonatan Shapira, an Israeli Air Force refuser, who could not be present at our meeting.

Khatib was asked why he got involved in the resistance. He explained that it is a fact of life: "Some people die and some people live. Some people are in jail, and some people take action."

"There are 10,000 Palestinians in jail," Khatib said, "including many children and women. The wall goes around my neighborhood, my family lost land to the wall, and we suffer from a hard economic situation. You have to take action."

Another neighbor asked if his immediate family agrees with nonviolence, and Khatib explained, "Most of my family supports my way, but at the same time they worry about my safety."

As for the future, Khatib said, "We do not negotiate. We want to meet together, to bring the enemies together. Both sides gain if we have human actions to show an example that we can share the country together.