"Not by Might, Nor By Power But By My Spirit...."
Zechariah 4:6

Taanit Tzedek and Gaza Freedom March invite you to:

Gaza: One Year Later
An Interfaith Response

Thursday, Dec. 17th @ 6:30 PM
St. Paul's Cathedral, 138 Tremont St. Boston, MA

Speakers ~

Rabbi Brian Walt - co-founder of Taanit Tzedek: Jewish Fast for Gaza

Dr. Sara Roy - Senior Research Scholar, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, and expert on Gaza.

Dr. Nancy Murray - President of the Gaza Mental Health Foundation, Inc. and Steering Committee member for the Gaza Freedom March

Rev. Anne Franklin - Pastor of Church of the Good Shepard[sic], Watertown, MA

Imam Abdullah Talib Faruuq - Imam of Masjid Al-Hamdulilah, Roxbury, MA [A later version substituted Dr. Abdul Cader Asmal, President Emeritus of the Islamic Council of New England, but it was Faruuq, also spelled Faaruuq. -MS]

This event is part of "Operation Not By Might Nor by Power," a national day of Prayer, Study & Action launched by Taanit Tzedek (www.fastforgaza.net). This event is also co-sponsored by the Gaza Freedom March (www.gazafreedommarch.org).

We folded the leaflets we were giving out in two and put them in the Human Rights pamphlets we were using [Real Human Rights pamphlets. -MS], sticking slightly out, along with information about the 'Rockets to Roses' fundraising program whereby you an purchase a metal 'rose' created by a Sderot artist made from rockets fired at the city from Gaza.

Most people accepted the leaflets, although they may have done so because they thought we were part of the evening's 'entertainment.' A couple of people gave us the booklet back after they realized what it was about and a couple of people became argumentative.  One man began yelling at one of us (who responded wonderfully) and I was screamed at by a third man for allegedly insulting his wife, Hilary Rantisi, at a previous event (I gave her an earful after she started to physically push me around). Rantisi, meanwhile, was asking other leafleters for my name after I had refused to tell her. [Rantisi is a staffer at Harvard's Kennedy School, but her real passion is her anti-Israel activism. She has a great deal of influence over things (and invitations) at the school. Think about it. -MS]

Shortly after this, a man from the church came and said I needed to leave as some people (Rantisi, et al.) said I had threatened them(!) [This is laughable if you know the person in question.-MS]. I told him that I would be glad to move to the sidewalk but that the people who had reported this were lying; other leafleters confirmed this. He also said he was calling the police.

[A second person now:]While the church guy was calling police, I stayed next to the door on top of the stairs. The Imam came out and started talking to me (the good part of the gang was still standing inside the hallway as they apparently do not know where to go or the room is locked or something like that). The first thing that comes out of his mouth is that "Israel should disappear" (so much for interfaith) and that the ones who "do not agree with their program" (i.e., us) are affected by "sickness", and that he was most upset that Americans like us support Israel. I asked him if he was one of the speakers and he said yes. [That would make him Imam Abdullah Talib Faruuq - Imam of Masjid Al-Hamdulilah, Roxbury, MA. -MS]

The encounter with Nancy Murray was much less friendly - she took the handout and then dropped it on the ground saying, "Oh, this is not for me." Don't they teach them not to litter at the ACLU? A woman who was with her started screaming - "My God, the children in Gaza are dying" and went inside... They are nuts.

When the police came, it was not just with a cruiser but a prisoner wagon (it was so cold that that wagon looked pretty good by then). They laughed when they saw just three of us shivering outside (it was just three of us by then -- "this is just three of you, ladies?" and were very friendly but we had to stay off church's steps after that. The police asked for copies of our literature, which we gladly gave them, and stayed in their car outside the church until we left.