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GUEST: Aliyah Strauss, Chair of the Israel section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, long-time member of Women in Black, performer with The Raging Grannies in Israel

Israeli Vice-Prime Minister Shimon Peres announced a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the so-called “road-map for peace.” According to Abbas, an agreement had been reached on swapping a captured Israeli soldier for Palestinian prisoners. This was the same soldier in whose name Israel continued its brutal repression in Gaza earlier in the summer, killing hundreds of Palestinians. Yesterday Israel invited tenders for nearly 700 new housing units in the occupied West Bank. This would be the largest expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories since Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took office in May. Meanwhile, International peace keepers are moving into Lebanon in the aftermath of a ceasefire agreement in August. Israel has continued a unilateral air and sea blockade of Lebanon, in violation of the ceasefire. The brief war killed 1200 people in Lebanon who were mostly civilians and one-third children. One hundred and sixty, mostly soldiers, were killed in Israel.

Aliyah Strauss is a longtime member of Women in Black in Israel, a women’s organization founded in 1988 to oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestine. She is also the chair of the Israel section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

Aliyah will be speaking on Sunday, September 10 at 7 p.m. at the Liberty Hill Foundation Community Room, 2121 Cloverfield Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404.
Parking and entrance in rear of building.

The event is sponsored by Women in Black-Los Angeles and co-sponsored by Palestine Aid Society and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Los Angeles Branch. For more information call (323) 993-3322.