December 14, 2012

A Report from the Dorothy Cotton Institute's 2012 Civil and Human Rights Delegation to the West Bank



About the Delegation

From Oct. 11-24, 2012, we -- a historic delegation of twenty-three leaders from the nonviolent U.S. Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, younger civil and human rights leaders, social justice activists, peace builders and educators -- traveled to East Jerusalem and the West Bank to meet with leaders of the Palestinian grassroots nonviolent resistance movement and their Israeli allies. In the long tradition of inter-racial, inter-generational and inter-faith coalitions for freedom and justice, we were African-Americans and Jewish Americans; ministers and rabbis; prominent scholars and organizers. We ranged in age from 30 to 83. The delegation was sponsored by the Dorothy Cotton Institute (DCI), as part of its Palestinian/Israeli Nonviolence Project. It was planned and led by Rabbi Brian Walt, DCI Palestinian/Israeli Nonviolence Project Fellow, and DCI Senior Fellows, in partnership with Interfaith Peace Builders (IFPB).

We traveled to meet, engage with, learn from and encourage Palestinians and their Israeli allies who have committed themselves to nonviolent direct action to end occupation and oppression. The Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement which dates back to the tax revolts and general strikes against the British Mandate in the 1920s and 1930s, was used as the primary form of organizing during the First Intifada in the late 1980s and continues today. Although it is not well known in the U.S., we believe it is one of the most important tests of nonviolent principles and practices in the 21st Century.

We sought to develop ongoing relationships and solidarity with those in the nonviolent resistance movement; increase the international visibility of this movement; learn more about the practice of nonviolent direct action; and encourage and support efforts to bring justice, security and human rights to all people in the region. We also committed to help inform people in the U.S. about the situation and to bring attention to the role the U.S. currently plays in perpetuating the unacceptable status quo and, alternatively, could play in promoting a lasting peace with justice.

We had many life-changing encounters with Palestinians and Israelis who shared with us the history and realities of this region, as well as their hopes and fears and determined non-violent resistance to injustice. What we experienced and witnessed was both deeply troubling and profoundly inspiring. It was also frighteningly familiar to injustices in our own country, both past and present. We returned home with a deeper understanding of the struggles in this region and a powerful commitment to support our Palestinian and Israeli sisters and brothers working for a solution that ensures justice, equality and security for everyone who lives on this beautiful land.

What We Learned
First and foremost, we are inspired by the many people we met who exemplify the Palestinian commitment to sumud ("steadfastness") and the Jewish commitment to tikkun olam ("repairing the world").  They are working courageously, creatively and non-violently, not only to end domination and injustice, but to bring into being a new society based on justice and the humanity of all.

Our own history teaches us that changing seemingly intractable realities is possible. Those sisters and brothers we met are developing their own movement, unique to their time and place. At the same time, they are fundamentally connected to the ongoing universal struggle for justice and human rights. 

They challenge with nonviolent direct action; participate in boycotts; document, witness and film; defend those who are detained, mistreated, and denied human rights; heal and empower, challenge lies with truth in their newspapers and blogs, and express outrage and celebrate hope in the graffiti that appears on the length of the Separation Wall. Their warmth and generous hospitality made us feel at home across culture, language and generations. Their stories and analyses gave us personal insight into the injustices, human rights violations and ongoing oppression that rarely enter American consciousness or discourse about the region.

We met young Palestinian activists in The Coalition for Dignity and Youth Against the Settlements – many of whom have been inspired by Gandhi and King – who are at the center of creative nonviolent direct action "occupying" segregated roads and protecting older Palestinian farmers from settler violence while harvesting olives, building connection to the land and understanding across generations. We talked with the leaders of the Popular Coordinating Committees and others in Budrus, Bil'in and other nearby Palestinian villages who, through daily nonviolent demonstrations, succeeded in moving the path of the Separation Wall and preserving some of their land. We shared many hours of thoughtful conversation and uplifting song with three generations in the village of Nabi Saleh; they have held demonstrations every Friday for more than 3 years -- in the face of tear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and live ammunition -- to protest confiscations of their land and water. 

We met equally impassioned young Israelis. Some, like the young Jewish Israelis in Anarchists Against the Wall travel to the West Bank, often in violation of Israeli law, to stand in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters during unarmed protests. Others, like the women we met at New Profile have served time in Israeli jails for refusing compulsory military service; they are counseling other "refuseniks" and actively challenging the intensively militarized Israeli society. Still others, through Breaking the Silence, are offering up testimonies about the brutal work of military occupation. 

We listened to both Jewish Israeli and Palestinian human rights lawyers who work tirelessly to win the release of Palestinians (including children as young as twelve) who are arrested in the middle of the night, held in administrative detentions without charge, criminalized, abused and traumatized within the Israeli military court system.

We grieved to learn that on the day we arrived home in the U.S., Bassem Tamimi, a key leader in Nabi Saleh, was arrested by the Israeli military for leading a non-violent demonstration in a settlement supermarket on the West Bank.  His ribs were broken during his arrest. He has been sentenced to 4 months in military jail, with a 3-year suspended sentence. Bassem has already spent most of the last year in prison for his organizing.  We also mourn the death of Rushdi Tamimi, a young man from Nabi Saleh who was shot by Israeli soldiers during a village protest against the Israeli attack on Gaza (Operation Pillar of Defense) and later died. 

We met Palestinian Christians at Sabeel who develop liberation theology to renew the sense of Palestinian identity and promote peace, reconciliation and nonviolence among young people who know only occupation. Others at the Holy Land Trust draw from their deep religious commitment to nonviolence to create leadership development workshops to help women engage with the "impossible" and create new paths forward. 

Each day, we witnessed the Israeli state's unabated expansion of illegal settlements. We heard about the consistent pattern of policies seeking to force Palestinians from their homes and off their land, or at the very least, to make life so unbearable that they would "choose" to leave. And we saw a network of highways, some partially off limits and some totally forbidden to Palestinians (the Israeli military calls these “sterile roads”). This network is designed so Israeli settlers may more easily travel between their West Bank homes and their jobs in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv without encountering any Palestinians.

We also visited the Nassar family at the Tent of Nations, outside Bethlehem, who have fought continual court battles to hold onto the farm purchased by their grandfather in 1916. In spite of being surrounded by five Israeli settlements, Israeli army roadblocks, the settlers' destruction of 250 olive trees, repeated denials for permits to build, demolition orders and other efforts to force them off the land, they bring youth and adults together across cultures and nations to engage in creative, life-affirming, land-honoring projects.

Moving Forward

Whenever we asked people "how can we help?", we received two answers. The first was, "Tell people what is happening here." The second was: "Talk to people in your own country about the pivotal role of the United States in perpetuating these policies. Ask who profits from this, and what you can do to change that."

Now that we have returned home, we are asking ourselves what it means to be faithful to these Palestinians and Israelis working to build a just and democratic society – both those we now call "friend" and those we have not yet met. While we are still answering this question, our work includes writing, blogging, media interviews, contacting the White House and Congress, and speaking to groups and individuals to inform the U.S. public about the situation and what roles they can play. We will share widely the experiences of those we met – both those mentioned above, and the many more we were not able to include here.  We are also continuing to inform ourselves about history, current realities, and the movements working for peace, justice, and security for all.

In closing, we make the following observations:

The U.S. government provides $3 billion annually in foreign military aid to Israel. We call for the U.S. to condition this aid on an end to Israeli settlement expansion, occupation, and other violations of United States, international and human rights law.  We support the United States church leaders who recently called for conditioning aid on Israeli compliance with United States and international law and upholding human rights and equality of all people.

We heard from many Palestinians and their Israeli allies about the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel’s occupation and against international companies that profit from the occupation. BDS is a nonviolent strategy for change widely supported by Palestinian organizations.  We will support boycotts of and divestment from Israeli, US and European corporations that profit directly from continued occupation and oppression. We will also explore other actions we may undertake as individuals and/or as a group as part of the growing BDS movement.

We are heartened that President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others in the U.S. and Egyptian governments played a positive role in helping negotiate the recent cease fire in Gaza. No civilians in Israel or Palestine should live in fear of rockets and bombs. At the same time, arrests, detentions and violence against Palestinians engaged in nonviolent protest have risen, and the forces of occupation, oppression and war remain. We are paying attention to what is happening to individuals whom we met and finding ways to actively advocate on their behalf.

We are also committed to using fully our rights and privileges as U.S. citizens to challenge and persuade our government to end its support for and profiteering from racism, discrimination, oppression and occupation, in this region, here at home, and throughout the world.

Finally, we support the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians to live with dignity and security. Like most of those we met on our travels, we do not see these rights as being inherently in conflict. We will continue to speak out about the humanity of all people, the preciousness of every human being, and our belief in working nonviolently for change.

As theologian Walter Brueggemann observed in The Prophetic Imagination, empires work by constricting imagination, managing reality and language, and spreading despair. They function by having people believe there is little or nothing they can do to change the conditions of reality.
Yet in spite of widespread fear, grief, anger, despair and the many political difficulties that must be overcome, our history teaches us that hope is not only possible, but justified. As we traveled, we carried with us our dreams of and lifelong work for "Beloved Community," an inter-dependence that recognizes the preciousness of every human life, and embraces and supports the humanity of all. We met with many people -- both Palestinian and Israeli -- who are engaged in the work of reclaiming imagination and possibility, who are struggling steadfastly to "build up a new world" ensuring justice and the humanity of all, and who refuse to despair. We heard that they were encouraged by our presence with them. We were most certainly encouraged by them.

We join with countless people -- in the U.S. and abroad -- who are already engaged in this important work; we invite those not yet engaged to join with us as well.

For more information, contact:  Rabbi Brian Walt, DCI Palestinian-Israeli Nonviolence Project Fellow, 508-560-0589 or rabbibrianwalt@gmail.com.

or Kirby Edmonds, DCI Program Coordinator and Senior Fellow, 607 277-3401 TFCKirby@aol.com



For more information about the Dorothy Cotton Institute, visit www.dorothycottoninstitute.org 
Read more about the delegates and the organizations with whom we met.



About the Dorothy Cotton Institute
The Dorothy Cotton Institute based in Ithaca, NY, USA, seeks "the full realization of a just and peaceful beloved community in which all people understand, respect, protect, and exercise full human rights."  It does this by working to develop, nurture and train leaders for a global human rights movement; build a network and community of civil and human rights leaders; and explore, share and promote practices that transform individuals and communities, opening new pathways to peace, justice and healing.


Ms. Dorothy Cotton -- who was a member of the delegation -- is the former Director of Education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She was the only woman on Dr. King's executive staff, and is now a Distinguished Fellow at DCI, the institute that bears her name and is committed to carrying on her life work.

Delegates
Rabbi Joseph Berman
Laura Branca
Dorothy Cotton
Dr. Clayborne Carson
Richard Deats
Kirby Edmonds
Jeff Furman
Dr. Alan Gilbert
Dr. Vincent Harding
Dr. Robert Harris, Jr.
Sara Hess
Dr. Margo Hittleman
Reverend Lucas Johnson
Aljosi Aldrich Knight
Reverend Carolyn McKinstry
Dr. Marne O'Shae
Allie Perry
Dr. Paula Rayman
Dr. Alice Rothchild
Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou
Dr. James Turner
Rabbi Brian Walt


November 28, 2012

Is Stevie Wonder No Longer a Supporter of Freedom and Justice?


Robert L. Harris, Jr., Professor of African American History, Africana Studies & Research Center at Cornell University

Stevie Wonder, the staunch advocate of freedom and justice in the United States and South Africa, is scheduled to headline a benefit concert in Los Angeles, December 6th, for the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The organization was formed some thirty-one years ago by Holocaust survivors. I question whether they are aware of the role that the IDF plays in the occupation and suppression of Palestinians and whether Stevie Wonder knows about it.

Just about a month ago, I visited Israel/Palestine with a group of African American and Jewish leaders through the Interfaith Peace Builders and the Dorothy Cotton Institute. I was taken especially by the testimony of Palestinians who described the violation of their human rights as confirmed in statements by former Israeli soldiers. With impunity, Israeli soldiers invade Palestinian homes on the West Bank, seize and blindfold residents, even children, and take them to police stations for interrogation. The children are snatched from their homes and questioned for as many as three days without the presence of their parents. Former Israeli soldiers told us about the intimidation of Palestinians and the use of what I can only describe as “psychological warfare” to terrorize them.

There are Israelis and Palestinians engaged in dialogue through the principles of non-violence to end the conflict and to establish a comprehensive and enduring peace. I would think that Stevie Wonder, an admirer and supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela, would seek to advance the work of those individuals and groups seeking to end the conflict rather than the forces that perpetuate it. Many Palestinians are refugees in their own land, which was forcibly taken from them and is now occupied by Israelis. The Israeli occupation intrudes into almost every area of Palestinian life.

Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank cannot reunite with their families. They face onerous restrictions and roadblocks to travel within their own territory. Israeli settlers, many from the United States, seize Palestinian land and uproot their olive trees, a symbol of their heritage, tradition, and family. We saw olive trees estimated to be hundreds of years old that Israeli settlers uproot and often burn as an insult to Palestinians on their own land. Hopefully, Stevie Wonder and his sponsors will become aware of the Israeli descent into apartheid with a separation wall, electrified barbed wire, and guard towers perpetuated by the IDF.

November 21, 2012

Mideast peace — one chick pea at a time

By Alice Rothchild

 November 21, 2012

While fears of a large Israeli invasion of Gaza mount and representatives of Hamas threaten not to “back down,” there is much frustration and weariness with the lack of any positive developments coming out of Washington. Despite President Obama’s inaction, there is growing awareness that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the intense blockade of Gaza are serious impediments to peace and that US military and political support make this all possible. At the same time we have a cautious president, not willing to expend his newly earned capital on this morass, a fractious Congress, and an increasingly belligerent Benjamin Netanyahu, threatening to extract a “heavy price” if Palestinians renew their bid for observer status at the UN, as he also seeks reelection.

One positive development in this evolving catastrophe is the growing citizen activism that is turning to grassroots organizing, merging socially responsible investing, food justice, and peace activism to create another voice that offers a way forward. Universities, businesses, investors, and citizens are increasingly interested in their social responsibilities, from investments to grocery shopping. Consumers are beginning to understand that supporting a corporation that not only makes cell phones but also high level security apparatus, makes the consumer complicit in the use of that equipment and its consequences.

Internationally, boycotts in Europe have caused several important industries to move out of the West Bank settlements, pension funds have divested from military companies, universities have severed ties with Israeli universities that work on military research and development. Agrexco, Israel’s largest fresh produce exporter is facing bankruptcy because the company markets 60-70 percent of the fruits and vegetables grown in the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Nationally, Quakers, United Methodists, and Presbyterians have debated and moved toward ethical investing, divesting from companies that directly profit from the Israeli occupation. Universities are increasingly debating these issues, with student groups taking the lead. These efforts are supported by a number of trade unions as well as outspoken members of the African American community, like Angela Davis, who are drawing parallels between a segregated and discriminatory Israeli society and US civil rights struggles. Spearheaded by Jewish Voice for Peace, there is also a national campaign to pressure TIAA CREF, one of the largest financial services in the United States, to divest from a similar list of companies.

Mirroring a campaign in Philadelphia, a coalition of Boston area groups focused their efforts on the Harvest Co-op, a food co-op that prides itself in its social responsibility. The group collected signatures for a referendum to deshelve Sabra Dipping Humus. Sabra operates under an Israeli company, the Strauss Group, which proudly supports a brigade in the Israeli Defense Force, the Golani Brigade, known for particularly egregious treatment against Palestinians. Members of the coalition stood outside the Co-op for over a year and talked to thousands of shoppers, the vast majority grateful for information regarding Sabra and its ties to human rights abuses. Many Co-op shoppers pledged to stop buying Sabra, to tell their friends, and to learn more about the US and corporate ties to Israeli violence. While the call for a referendum was recently rejected after a less than open process, the Co-op also announced that it will no longer stock Sabra Humus because of lack of consumer demand; shoppers voted with their pocket books.

All these actions are responding to a call from over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations for a campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions until the Israeli government abides by international laws. The efforts serve to educate the public about realities on the ground, to create economic and political pressure, and ultimately to reach a tipping point in public discourse and political behavior.
The campaign offers a welcome, nonviolent, creative grassroots challenge to the status quo. It is based on a long tradition, a form of resistance that has been used by people of conscience going back to the antislavery movement. After all the dialogue groups and peace songs, the calls to congress-people, letters to the editor, agonized conversations in temples, standouts in front of AIPAC, what progress has been made?

Ultimately, respecting human rights and honestly addressing long simmering conflicts that threaten to explode within Israel and the territories, rather than defending Israeli exceptionalism, can only enhance the security of all Israelis and Diaspora Jews, as well as improve life for Palestinians. I just spent two weeks in the region with the Dorothy Cotton Institute, a US civil rights organization rooted in the work of Martin Luther King. We met with Palestinians and their Israeli allies engaged in nonviolent resistance, working to protect village lands from the encroaching Jewish settlements and the separation wall; working to change Israeli policy one bulldozer, one olive tree, one chick pea at a time.

Alice Rothchild is a Boston-based physician, author and filmmaker. Her book, “Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience,’’ was published in 2010.



 

MEMBERS OF CIVIL RIGHTS DELEGATION TO WEST BANK URGE PRESIDENT OBAMA: END THE VIOLENCE AND SECURE A JUST PEACE



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For Immediate Release
November 21, 2012

MEMBERS OF CIVIL RIGHTS DELEGATION TO WEST BANK URGE PRESIDENT OBAMA: END THE VIOLENCE AND SECURE A JUST  PEACE

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”
                                                                             Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

An immediate end to Israel’s assault on Gaza, “Operation Pillar of Defense,” matters. An immediate end to the violence—the onslaught of missiles, rockets, drones, killing, and targeted assassination—matters. An end to Israel’s ongoing blockade of Gaza matters.  An end to Israeli’s 45-year occupation of Palestine matters. A resolution of the issue of Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes in 1948, many of whom live in Gaza matters.  Equality, security, and human rights for everyone matters.

We write as individuals who recently traveled to the West Bank with the Dorothy Cotton Institute’s 2012 Civil and Human Rights Delegation, organized by Interfaith Peace-Builders.  We cannot and will not be silent.  We join our voices with people around the world who are calling for an immediate cease-fire. Specifically, we implore President Barack Obama to demand that Israel withdraw its forces from Gaza’s borders; make U.S. aid to Israel conditional upon Israel’s adherence with relevant U.S. and international law; work with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to bring an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and to secure a just peace that ensures everyone’s human rights.

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.”  As Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared in 1993, “Enough of blood and tears.”  Enough!

We deplore the firing of rockets on civilian areas in Israel.  We also deplore and are outraged by the asymmetry, the disproportionality, of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, evidenced by the growing number of Palestinian civilian deaths and casualties.  This is not a conflict between equal powers, but between a prosperous occupying nation on one hand, armed and sanctioned by 3 billion dollars in annual U.S. military aid, and on the other, a population of 1.7 million besieged people, trapped within a strip of land only 6 miles by 26 miles, (147 square miles) in what amounts to an open-air prison. 
United States military support to Israel is huge.  From 2000 to 2009, the US appropriated to Israel $24 billion in military aid, delivering more than 670 million weapons and related military equipment with this money.  During these same years, through its illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, Israel killed at least 2,969 Palestinians who took no part in hostilities.

During our trip to the West Bank, we witnessed for ourselves the injustice and violence of the Israeli occupation and the suffering inflicted on the Palestinians, in violation of international law and UN resolutions.  

In the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh, for just one example, we observed a weekly nonviolent protest.   The neighboring Israeli settlement of Halamish was illegally built on Nabi Saleh’s land.  This settlement has also seized control of the Nabi Saleh’s water spring, allowing villagers to access their own spring water for only 7-10 hours a week.  Demonstrators of all ages participated in the protest, including several who, in recognition of the civil rights veterans in our delegation, carried posters with quotations from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  We watched in horror as heavily armed members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded to this peaceful assembly with violence, strafing the demonstrators with a barrage of tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, gas grenades, and even a round of live ammunition.  

The IDF assault in response to these weekly nonviolent demonstrations can be deadly.  Rushdi Tamimi, a young adult Nabi Saleh villager, died this past week while he was protesting Israel’s attack on Gaza.  The IDF fired rubber bullets into Rushdi’s back and bullets into his gut, and slammed his head with a rifle butt.

Israel’s assault on Gaza is exponentially more violent than what we witnessed in the West Bank, but the context--the oppression of the Palestinian people—is the same.  Most of the inhabitants of Gaza are refugees or descendants of refugees expelled from their homes in Israel in 1948.   This dispossession of the Palestinians that they call the Nakba (The Catastrophe) continues on the West Bank where Israel has built extensive Jewish settlements on confiscated Palestinian land. We saw with our own eyes how this settlement expansion and the systemic discrimination has further dispossessed the Palestinian people and is creating a “silent transfer” of Palestinians who are either forced or decide to leave because of the oppression.   This injustice—Israel’s decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people—has to be addressed by honest and good-faith negotiations and a genuine agreement to share the land.  The alternative is a future of endless eruptions of aggression, senseless bloodshed, and more trauma for Palestinians and Israelis. This surely matters to all people of good will.

To President Obama, we say, use the immense power and authority United States citizens have once again entrusted to you, to exercise your courage and moral leadership to preserve lives and protect the dignity and self-determination, to which the Palestinian people and all people are entitled.   Israel relies upon the economic, military, and strategic cooperation and support of the United States.  You have the power to not only appeal to Israel to show restraint, but to require it.

Feeling ourselves deeply a part of “We the People,” sharing so much of your own tradition of organizing for justice and peace, we believe it is just, moral and in keeping with the best spirit of Dr. King to urge you to: 

§  Call for an end to violence by all parties and an immediate cease-fire for the sake of all people in the region.
§  Use your power to demand that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF cease the bombardment of Gaza and withdraw their armed forces immediately. 
§  Join with the international community in using all diplomatic, economic, and strategic means to end Israel’s illegal, brutal siege of Gaza.
§  Insist that the United States condition aid to Israel on compliance with U.S. law (specifically the U.S. Arms Export Control Act) and with international law.
§  Work with the leaders of Israel and Palestine to secure an end to Israel’s occupation and to negotiate a just peace.

As citizens of the United States, we are responsible for what our government does in our name, and so we will not be silent.  Justice, peace and truth matter.  The future of the children of Israel and Palestine matter.  We cannot be silent and neither can you. 

Members of the The Dorothy Cotton Institute 2012 Civil and Human Rights Delegation:

donnie i. betts, Filmmaker, Denver, CO
Rabbi Joseph Berman, Chair, Boston Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, Boston, MA
Laura Ward Branca, Senior Fellow, Dorothy Cotton Institute, Ithaca, NY
Prof. Clayborne Carson  Director Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Dorothy F, Cotton, Distinguished Fellow, Dorothy Cotton Institute, Ithaca, NY.
Rev. Richard L. Deats, Ph.D.  Editor Emeritus, FELLOWSHIP magazine, Nyack, NY
Kirby Edmonds, Senior Fellow and Coordinator, Dorothy Cotton Institute, Ithaca, NY
Jeff Furman, National Advisor, Dorothy Cotton Institute
Prof. Alan Gilbert, University of Denver, Denver, CO
Dr. Vincent Harding, Historian, Activist, Friend and Colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Denver, CO
Robert. L. Harris, Jr., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Sara Hess, Ithaca, NY
Aljosie Aldrich Knight, Atlanta, GA
Rev. Lucas Johnson, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Atlanta, GA
Dr. Marne O’Shae, Ithaca, NY
The Rev. Dr. Allie Perry, Board Member, Interfaith Peace-Builders, New Haven, CT
Dr. Paula M. Rayman, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Watertown, MA
Dr. Alice Rothchild, American Jews for a Just Peace, Cambridge, MA
Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, Freeman Fellow, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Boston, MA 
Dr. James Turner, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Rabbi Brian Walt, Palestinian/Israeli Nonviolence Project Fellow, Dorothy Cotton Institute, Ithaca, NY



For More Information:
Rabbi Brian Walt
Palestinian/Israeli Nonviolence Project Fellow, Dorothy Cotton Institute
508 560-0589

or

Kirby Edmonds
Coordinator, Dorothy Cotton Institute
607-277-3401