Jan. 13, 2008

CONTACT:

IN JERUSALEM: Avichay Sharon, Combatants for Peace, 972 50 9266 294, avichay@shovrimshtika.org  

IN NEW YORK: Ateqah Khaki, Riptide Communications, 917-518-2834, ateqah@riptideonline.com

Aramin Family Breaks Ground on Garden Memorializing

10-Year-Old Daughter Killed By Israeli Soldiers One Year Ago

Former Combatants Advocating End to All Violence in Israel-Palestine Conflict

to Launch U.S. Speaking Tour

January 12, 2008, Jerusalem – Nearly one year after 10-year-old Abir Aramin was shot and killed by a rubber bullet to the head, her parents, Bassam and Salwa Aramin, will lead former combatants – Israeli and Palestinian – in a solemn groundbreaking ceremony to build “Abir’s Garden,” a playground in memory of their daughter.  Groundbreaking begins at Noon on Sunday, January 13^th on the grounds of the Anata Girls School, on the immediate Palestinian side of the wall bordering East Jerusalem. 

“Abir loved to play.  She often asked me about the beautiful playgrounds in Israel and wondered why not in Anata,” said Bassam Aramin, Abir’s father and a founding member of Combatants for Peace. “We hope this playground will let the children know that people everywhere, Palestinians, Israelis, and Americans too, care about them. We want to give them a chance to play, to have light at night so that the kids and their mothers and fathers can enjoy this place together.”

Aiding their quest to transform the empty school yard into a safe place for Abir's classmates is Combatants for Peace, an organization of former Israeli and Palestinian fighters who no longer see each other as enemies, advocate together for an end to the Israeli occupation, and seek justice and reconciliation through dialogue.

“Last year at the hospital, I was among the first to be beside Salwa and Bassam when Abir arrived,” said Zohar Shapira, Project Coordinator for Combatants for Peace, who formerly served for more than 15 years in the elite unit of "Sayert Matkal," as a combatant and as a commander. “We became brothers that day, Bassam and I, as this philosophy we share was tested to its limits with the death of Abir.”

The Aramin family leaves the next day for New York City where Bassam Aramin will address an audience of supporters in New York City, launching a seven state speaking tour in the United States. He will be joined by Capt. Yonatan Shapira, who authored the 2003 "Pilot's Letter" refusing to serve missions in the occupied territories, and Elik Elhanan, a refuser who lost his young sister Smadar in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 1997. Together these founding members of Combatants for Peace will tell Americans Abir's story and describe how it forged the group’s determination to end all violence whether individual or state sponsored. 

The speaking tour is sponsored by the Rebuilding Alliance, an American NGO that rebuilds homes and communities in regions of war and occupation while advocating for government policies based on human rights and international law. Coming on the heels of the Bush visit to Israel and the West Bank, the Combatants for Peace will be speaking  in synagogues, churches, mosques and with U.S. elected officials as they seek justice for Abir and describe why theirs is an essential path to peace. The full tour schedule is available at http://ourspeakingtour.pbwiki.com

Jan. 10, 2008

CONTACT: Ateqah Khaki, Riptide Communications, 212-260-5000

MEDIA ADVISORY

FORMER COMBATANTS ADVOCATING FOR NON-VIOLENT SOLUTION IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT TO SPEAK IN NYC

Former Fatah Member Joins Former Israeli Fighter Pilot in Urgent Plea for Peace

Palestinian Father Commemorates One Year Death Anniversary of 10-Year-Old Daughter Killed By Israeli Soldier

January 8, 2008, New York, NY – Founding members of Combatants for Peace, Bassam Aramin and Yonatan Shapira, will be speaking at St. Marks Church in New York City on Wednesday, January 16, as the first U.S. stop in a multi-city speaking tour.

The speaking tour coincides with the one-year-anniversary of the death of Abir, Mr. Aramin’s 10-year-old daughter who was killed on January 16, 2007 when a rubber bullet fired by an Israeli Border Police officer struck her in the head on her walk home from school in the East Jerusalem town of Anata.  Mr. Aramin, a former Fatah fighter who served a seven-year prison sentence for helping to plan an attack against Israeli soldiers co-founded Combatants for Peace with Yonatan Shapira, a former IDF pilot and the founding member of the Israel Air Force Black Hawk squadron. In 2003, along with 26 other Air Force pilots, Mr. Shapira signed a declaration refusing to participate in attacks in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, on the basis that such attached are illegal, immoral, and do not serve the security of Israel. The tour comes on the heels of President Bush’s visit to the Mideast this week.

Together, Mr. Aramin and Mr. Shapira founded Combatants for Peace, former Israeli and Palestinian fighters who no longer see each other as enemies, advocate together for an end to the Israeli occupation, and seek justice and reconciliation through dialogue. ABIR'S GARDEN emerged as a way of memorializing Mr. Aramin’s daughter by building a safe place for her community to gather, play and heal.  

The tour is sponsored by The Rebuilding Alliance, a non-profit organization that rebuilds homes and communities in regions of war and occupation, as well as advocating for government policies in these regions based on human rights and international law.  The speakers will travel to Vermont, Washington D.C. and California after their New York appearances.