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Email from Riad Hamad, Palestinian Children’s Welfare Fund

Dear Friends,

I hope that all of you are safe and well and enjoying a peaceful week with your families. As you probably heard the Suleiman family was deported to Jordan on Monday of last week and they are now in Amman, Jordan penny less with no home, no car, no clothes and no jobs which is not very encouraging.

Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund works ONLY inside Palestine and we made an exception for these families due to the severe hardship imposed on them and the fact that children were put in jail which was unbelievable and moved us to provide help to them.
Mr. Suleiman called me three times from Jordan so far asking for help in shipping their furniture in order for them to have some sort of normalcy back into the lives of the children and to give them some sense of security. PCWF paid for the airlines tickets for the children to accompany their mother as they are U.S citizens and the government would not pay the tickets to deport them. On the other hand, we contributed to their personal expenses and legal fees which is mounting and taking away from funds that we usually send to the children in Palestine who are in dire need these days.

Please let me know if any one from the Arab, Muslim or Palestinian community is willing, able or desire to help in any way to send money for the family to eat and live with dignity till the man finds a job in Amman. Also, we need some help in finding a shipping company to send their furniture as so far, we can only find companies that charge nothing less than 4000 dollars to pick up the furniture from Dallas to Houston and then to Agaba, Jordan and then to Amman.

Personally, my financial situation is in shambles due to my commitments in Palestine and beyond any means of helping this family anymore. I would greatly appreciate any ideas from you on how to get help for these families and I will be glad to provide you with their account number in order for anyone to put the money directly in their accounts.

It is very important that we live up to our promise to them when they were in jail that we will help them and for the sake of the children who were forced out of their homes, schools and deprived of their dignity for several months. We will be glad to forward the money to them on your behalf and provide you with a tax exemption if you wish and like always, ALL the donations will be posted on the website for transparency and accuracy.

Looking forward to hearing from you and SHUKRAN in advance for your generosity, work and support for the children in Palestine

Salamat
Riad Hamad

http://www.pcwf.org, http://www.marhabafrompalestine.com , Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund. 201 W. Stassney # 201, Austin, Texas 78745 Support the children of Palestine by buying Palestinian arts and crafts. Sustain the Palestinian economy and provide jobs for the men, women and farmers in Palestine to live with pride and dignity TILL WE RETURN.

Email from John Wheat Gibson

To all who are interested in the incarceration of the Ibrahim family:

The Immigration Court at Dallas, Texas, whose legendary incompetence is matched by nothing in all the world except, perhaps, its malice and utter contempt for such American values as the liberty of human beings, announced that the hearing on whether Salaheddin Ibrahim will be freed from prison has been cancelled.

Instead, the hearing will be Thursday, 8 February 2007 at 09:00 in the immigration court at Dallas, Texas.

John Wheat Gibson

NOTE: Mr. Ibrahim is the father of four children who, along with their pregnant mother, Hanan, were released from the T. Don Hutto prison on Saturday. Since the family’s abduction in early November, Mr. Ibrahim has been imprisoned separately from his spouse and children, at an immigration prison in Haskell, Texas.

When we asked why the release of Mr. Ibrahim was taking so long, attorney Gibson replied, “I have not obtained it yet.”–gm

Email from Jay Johnson-Castro

Greetings all…

Here’s my first shot at an e-mail in well over a week. I’m sure many of you have enjoyed the break(:})…Please share this with those whom you know support our cause.

The Border Caravan of Marcha Migrante II left Douglas, AZ yesterday…traversed NM and we arrived in El Paso to a wonderful reception by Mayor John Cook, two other regional mayors and the media. It was refreshing to get back to the Texas Mexico border where there exists amistad…friendship.

Along the CA, AZ and NM borders…there is no river community like there is on the Rio Grande Corridor. In the western states, there is the harsh and gut-wrenching reality that death is the result of a perverted border wall mentality.

Thousands of people die trying to reach the land of hope and dreams. I have photographic proof of a secret mass grave of hundreds of unknown victims. A Minuteman presence exists which is more than willing to tramautize the humble and the poor and to treat them like garbage rats. I’ll discuss more about that in another communique.

The walls that exist and are being extended along the CA border is an moral and environmental American tragedy. Once Texans see what is really proposed…they’ll clearly stop it from happening in Texas which has 65% of the US-Mexico border. That will work for the good of the entire county.

We leave this morning for Redford , TX …just south of Presidio…to conmemortate the life of Esequiel Hernandez that was shot in the back by a camoflauged Marine while he was herding his family goats. We will then move on down the Rio Grande to Lajitas where we will protest the amputaion of Paso Lajitas by Homeland Security. It’s the small village across the river that has always been at peace, harmony and bonded with the Texas side. No city or community on the entire 4000 mile Canadian border has been treated so cruely.

In Lajitas, we will be hosted by Daniel Hostettler of the Lajitas resort.

We will arrive in Del Rio and Acuna tomorrow, stopping in Langtry along the way. That will put us half way two days from Brownsville . From Laredo to Brownsville , we’ll be stopping briefly in most of the cities to allow folks to join the Border Caravan. Most of the Hwy. 83 mayors are going to be meeting our motorcade of 6 cars. We hope you join us if you can.

HUTTO. You must be sharing my joy at the release of the Ibrahim family. I understand now that ICE has not let the father out of the Haskell prison camp. Governor Perry must not be pleased proud that Haskell is becoming more recognized for un-American treatment of people who want to be Americans…than his “hometown”.

We will be holding Vigil IV in Taylor on the 12th…as planned. We will notify you in a day or so of the exact time. It is imperative that all the innocent children and their mothers be released immediately. To do otherwise is not only immoral but criminal…by innternational law…a law that evidently the current administration refused to uphold…let alone respect. And we call ourselves a country of law and order…and NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND.

When we do meet up on this caravan…I’ll be proud to introduce you to Enrique Morones. This man is a champion of the abused immigrant. He is loved and respected by those sincere humans of all walks of life…wherever he goes. He is doing all he can to prevent the deaths of the poor who come here wanting to be Americans. Men, women…and children.

Finally…a request to all of my journalist friends. AP put out a report last month from Del Rio . It refered to a “stand off” between the national guard and some armed Mexicans on the US side of the border. I have confirmed from our local media that they have filed a complaint with the AP Dallas bureau. The San Antonio reporter merely happened to speak with a border patrol sargeant in Del Rio …about a supposed incident in NM or AZ. Anti immigrant talk show hosts are using this report and incident to promote the arming of the national guard all along our border. Supposedly it was a Tennessee national guard unit in AZ. Why were they there? Is there any proof that there was a confrontation? Could this be the way things are done…putting out erroneous reports to create histeria?

So, I appeal to the media to verify the facts…and if the facts reveal that someone is willfully tampering with the truth via the media to intensify border hostilities…please expose it. We do not want our border to continue to be the victim of media misinformation like Iraq was.

I hope to see you soon…

Jay

P.S. A very special thank you to those of you who are helping cover the expenses of my trip.

Note: the Wednesday hearing referenced below has been rescheduled for Thursday

We were curious why the mother and children of the Ibrahim family could be released early Saturday morning from T. Don Hutto prison, whereas Salaheddin cannot rejoin his family from the Haskell prison until after a hearing in Dallas on Wednesday. So we sent some questions to Ibrahim family attorney John Wheat Gibson:
TCRR: Hi John, in the interest of a more complete picture, what administrative action effecting the release of Hanan and children was not taken for Sala?

John Wheat Gibson: NONE

TCRR: Is the difference between the San Antonio and Dallas deportation regions
relevant to why one release was quicker than the other?

John Wheat Gibson: I DON’T KNOW

TCRR: Also, will Sala be at the hearing?

John Wheat Gibson: POSSIBLY IN PERSON, BUT PROBABLY BY TELEVISION