Willie Nelson

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FREE BETHLEHEM, PALESTINE FROM ISRAELI OCCUPATION!

“We know how to celebrate together, because we know how to weep together. The same week that Mary, a Muslim mother of seven was killed in Beit Jala, Johnny, a 17-year-old, died in Manger Square as he was coming out of the Church of the Nativity, both shot by Israeli snipers.

“We’re all inmates together, Muslims and Christians, in the same miserable prison called Palestine. We have no freedom, no peace, no jobs, no money for winter heating, no traveling to Jerusalem or between towns and villages, no future.”

Today, the town of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, is under illegal Israeli occupation.

In the West Bank and Gaza, over four million Palestinian Christians and Muslims live as second-class citizens in their own homeland, under a brutal and repressive military administration, simply because they are not Jewish.

Beginning in 1948, Israel has repeatedly expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland and denied their right of return, leaving over four million Palestinians in UN refugee camps today.

Since 1967, Israel has occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem in an illegal attempt to annex the entirety of historic Palestine.

Over 500,000 Jewish Israeli settlers currently reside in occupied Palestinian territory, in an attempt to create “facts on the ground” and prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Under international law, Israel is obligated to withdraw to the 1967 borders, allow all Palestinian refugees to return, and dismantle the apartheid wall, sniper towers, and military checkpoints built on Palestinian lands thoughout the West Bank.

Mishal Al-Johar created this poignant Occupied Bethlehem Christmas Message.  Sylvia Benini introduced Mishal Al-Johar to us here at Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute.  Sylvia writes, “Mishal is a young brillilant student here at University of Texas. He is a fine pacifist activist - we have collaborated for three going on four years, first met him when I was being arrested by the APD for protesting outside the Dobie Mall army recruiters’ office.”

Our dear Austin friend Sylvia Benini writes, “Look what is circulating all around the world?

“This photo is our pal & local activist Haithem ElZabri- who runs the Palestine OnLine Store, and lives in Round Rock just north of Austin … He and I have worked together for the last year closely ….

The young lady is Anna Baltzer, author of “Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories” and peace activist and speaker who comes regularly to Austin.

“This photo was taken here in Austin, right on the drag by UT campus! Passers-by responded very favorably to it and agreed that it was not right.

“Please, share this one with Willie and isn’t it ironic that the still productive historic farmlands of the Palestinians are being paved over to build condos for the Jewish settlers all throughout the West Bank and Gaza?

“This photo has been circulating all over the world, including a magazine cover in Occupied Palestine, and came bouncing into another friend and activist at AustinForIran – who got it from her family in Tehran!

“So, yes, the World is smaller and beautiful, yes?”

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