WHAT'S A NICE JEWISH GIRL DOING IN A PLACE LIKE GAZA CITY?

LOS ANGELES (August 10) --Tamara Rettino, a Jewish mother of three, and resident of Los Angeles spoke of her recent trip to the West Bank and Gaza Strip to a standing-room-only crowd of more than150 people at a local Jewish community center.

Rettino traveled to the Middle East to join with the hundreds of international volunteers who gathered as a part of "Freedom Summer,” sponsored by the International Solidarity Movement.

During her presentation to the hushed crowd,

Rettino showed a series of slides depicting her experiences in Gaza City, the Jenin refugee

camp, and other sites throughout the Occupied Territories.

Rettino recounted her work as a volunteer escorting ambulances

through the omnipresent checkpoints that have been imposed by the Israelis, in the

words of one Israeli activist, "a matrix of control" over the entire

region. The effect of these checkpoints, as illustrated by Rettino, has

been to destroy the Palestinian economy, to prevent Palestinians

from getting necessary medical treatment, to halt their freedom of

movement, and to stop food, water, and medical supplies from getting

through to the region.

Rettino's presentation included dozens of photographs of areas that

have been devastated by Israeli forces, including hospitals, homes,

apartment buildings, olive groves, and access roads. The

destruction--committed in violation of international laws against the

targeting of civilian populations--is part of a larger campaign of

collective punishment against the entire Palestinian population.

Tamara read excerpts from some of her poignant letters home:

July 18, 2002, from Jenin

"A newborn has been left by the roadside. We ride to the hospital to

claim him, and bring him to an orphanage in a surrounding town. This

sort of abandonment is rare here. Mothers delight in their families,

and towns are close knit, but Jenin is devastated. The economy is

hard struck, the water lines cut, the sounds of gunfire and bombing

have become background noise, the musak of the occupation. Even the

most hopeful voices carry a ring of fatality in them."

The event held at the Workmen's Circle was hosted by an activist group, Los Angeles Jews for a Just Peace (LA-JJP)--an organization founded by Rettino and others to express Jewish solidarity with Palestinians who live under Israeli occupation.

"We had to turn away a lot of people; there was just no more room," said LA-JJP organizer Carole LaFlamme. "We have obviously hit a nerve in the Jewish community, and people are hungry for this kind of first-hand information."

The event was not without conflict. Several pro-Israel opponents in the audience and outside made attempts to disrupt the presentation by yelling out their objections.

In an incident after the event, a camera-person from a local TV station complained in a loud voice that the speaker was all wet, "Imagine, saying that Israeli soldiers shoot kids." He told several people coming out of the event who questioned his remarks that they were "brainwashed."

The LA-JJP hosts educational programs around the Los Angeles area to highlight the severe conditions of Palestinian life under Israeli control. The organization has also organized a series of rallies at the Israeli Consulate that have attracted large numbers of Jewish, Muslim and Christian supporters of "a peaceful and just

settlement to the Middle East conflict."

FIND PHOTOS: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2002/08/18291.php

For further information or to request that Rettino address your organization,

contact Los Angeles Jews for a Just Peace at

(323) 769-5282 or khesed-ve-din@lycos.com.

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