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Dear

Almost one year ago, Israel unleashed "Operation Cast Lead" on the occupied Gaza Strip.  Israel 's 22-day assault killed about 1,400 Palestinians, injured thousands more, and destroyed billions of dollars of Palestinian civilian infrastructure. 

To this day, Israel maintains a comprehensive siege of the Gaza Strip, an illegal act of collective punishment targeting 1.5 million Palestinian civilians.  The siege denies Palestinians adequate access to food, clean water, sanitation, electricity, and even school books and construction materials for rebuilding,

 

Unfortunately, the United States is complicit in Israel 's human rights abuses of Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.  During "Operation Cast Lead," 

Click here to find a Gaza Freedom March event in your area

 

 

Click here for ideas on how to organize your own Gaza Freedom March solidarity event

 

 

Click here to register your Gaza Freedom March event

 

Israel misused U.S.

 

military aid

 

to kill and injure Palestinian civilians.  Congress has approved another $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel for FY2010, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.  Last Month, the House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the Goldstone Report

 

, thereby undermining international efforts to hold Israel accountable for the human rights abuses and war crimes it committed before, during, and after "Operation Cast Lead." And the Department of Energy just awarded a contract to Motorola Israel

 

, whose bomb fuzes enabled some of the bombs Israel dropped on Palestinian civilians during "Operation Cast Lead."

 

It's our responsibility to end U.S. support for Israel 's human rights abuses and war crimes against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip and elsewhere. Below are several ways to take action to end U.S. support for the siege of the Gaza Strip.

 

At our national conference in September, US Campaign member groups voted overwhelmingly to endorse the Gaza Freedom March. Now it's time to step up and show our support with action. 

The Gaza Freedom March will bring over 1,000 international human rights activists

 

to the Gaza Strip to march side-by-side with Palestinians from the Rafah checkpoint in the south to the Erez checkpoint in the north of the Gaza Strip.  The internationals participating in the Gaza Freedom March will convene in Cairo on December 27^th, the day that "Operation Cast Lead" began one year ago, cross into the Gaza Strip on December 29^th, and join with Palestinian activists to march the length of the Gaza Strip on December 31^st. 

 

The Gaza Freedom March will draw the attention of the whole world to Israel 's ongoing siege of and the precarious humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.  Even if you're not able to participate in the Gaza Freedom March, there are still things you can do in your community to support its goals. 

 

Plan an event in your area in solidarity with the Gaza Freedom March

Gaza Freedom Marchers have put out a call for solidarity actions between December 27^th and January 1^st.  You can organize a march in your community or another event, such as a vigil, film screening, art exhibition, or teach-in, during these days of action.  Click here

 

for more action ideas or here

 

to register your event so others can find it.

While we expect that the Gaza Freedom March events will be powerful expressions of our collective sorrow over last year's attack on the Gaza Strip, we also know that one day of action won't end Israel 's blockade or the U.S. support for Israel 's human rights abuses of Palestinians.  There are many ways to link your Gaza Freedom March event to ongoing actions to end the siege of the Gaza Strip and bring a just and peaceful resolution to Israel 's military occupation and apartheid practices against Palestinians.

 

Connect your event to an ongoing campaign

One way to link your event to the struggle to end U.S. support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid in the Gaza Strip and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories is to become a Congressional District Coordinator

 

(CDC) and invite participants in your event to future lobby meetings with your Members of Congress. 

Members of Congress are currently scheduled to adjourn for their winter recess on December 18 and are expected to be in their home districts until January 11.  During this winter recess, we are asking our CDC's to set up constituent meetings with their Members of Congress to ask them to end U.S. support for Israel 's blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip.  Click here

 

to register as a Congressional District Coordinator or here

 

to coordinate one round of meetings with your Members of Congress and we'll help train and support you in setting up a meeting with your Members of Congress during the winter recess.

 

You can also connect your event to an ongoing boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BD campaign.  While there are myriad corporations that profit from Israel 's occupation and apartheid practices and deserve to be boycotted and/or divested from, we suggest you plug into an already active campaign that we are organizing or supporting.  Three popular BDS campaigns are:

• Hang Up On Motorola
   
  : This campaign is working for accountability from Motorola, which profits by providing communications equipment to the Israeli military, "security" infrastructure to Israeli settlements, and products and services that normalize Israel's settlement system.  Click here
   
  to order a campaign kit to get your community involved in this boycott.
  
  
• Stop Caterkiller
   
  : This campaign is working to stop Caterpillar from profiting from Israel 's home demolitions and apartheid wall.  Caterpillar's equipment was even mentioned over 25 times in the U.N. Goldstone Report on "Operation Cast Lead." Join us in pressuring this U.S. corporation to end sales to Israel of equipment that it systematically uses to deny Palestinians their human rights.  Click here
   
  to order a campaign kit to educate and activate your community.
  
  
• Stolen Beauty
   
  : This campaign is focused on Ahava cosmetics, a corporation that is based in an Israeli settlement on Palestinian land in the West Bank .  Not only is Ahava headquartered in an illegal settlement, it also literally sells stolen Palestinian resources from the Dead Sea .  Click here
   
  for campaign ideas and resources.

 

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

DONATE

Beating, confinement, chaining, emotional distress - the evidence of elephant suffering in circuses is overwhelming...

 "It's kind of like a conductor leading an orchestra"

- AZA Elephant Group Head Mike Keele, on using a bullhook

So why is the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (AZA) elephant group leader defending the treatment of elephants by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus?

Tell the AZA to sever all ties with circus elephant cruelty

September 16, 2009

AZA'S COZY RELATIONSHIP WITH CIRCUSES

Despite the overwhelming amount of evidence of cruelty to elephants and other animals, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) maintains close ties with circuses. In doing so, zoos give credibility to the circus and help perpetuate the abuse and suffering inherent to the use of elephants in entertainment.

IDA CONFRONTS THE AZA

While the AZA holds its annual conference in Portland this week, IDA is there to pressure this trade association to sever all ties with the circus industry. Our activities include running a hard-hitting ad

IDA is also seeking censure of Oregon Zoo acting director Mike Keele, head of the AZA's Elephant Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) and acting director of the Oregon Zoo. In a complaint to the AZA Ethics Committee, IDA detailed Keele's self-serving and disturbingly close relationship with the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus.

KEELE TESTIFIES AS EXPERT FOR RINGLING CIRCUS

In March 2009, Keele testified as a $125-per-hour expert witness for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at a trial in the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. That complaint accused the circus of violating the Endangered Species Act by harming endangered Asian elephants through routine and abusive elephant handling practices. By appearing as an expert for the circus, Keele gave a tacit seal of approval to Ringling's unconscionable practices that were documented through mountains of evidence presented at trial. These include:

• Chaining elephants at the Ringling Center for Elephant Conservation for 16 to 22 hours per day;
• Using chains and ropes to tear babies away from their mothers at age two or younger (before they are weaned) to begin their training for the circus;
• Training baby elephants by breaking their spirits through maternal separation, prolonged restraint (tying up their legs), isolation from other elephants and hitting with bullhooks. (One 2-year-old baby elephant, Aria, was chained nonstop for four months and only let off chains for 40 minutes a day to be trained);
• Striking the elephants with bullhooks, the steel-tipped rods used to hit, stab and hook elephants into compliance. Ringling head Kenneth Feld, CEO of Feld Entertainment International admitted under oath that all his handlers strike elephants with bullhooks.

Adding to the incontrovertible evidence of elephant abuse and suffering in the Ringling circus is undercover video

Keele was well-compensated for his association with the Ringling circus, both in terms of the money he was paid as an expert witness and by advancing his goal of cementing closer cooperation between Ringling and AZA zoos for breeding purposes. In return, the circus received credibility from Keele, whose credentials as a zoo and AZA official were made clear at the trial.

Keele's behavior brings shame to the AZA, harms those within the industry who truly care about protecting elephants and makes a mockery of the group's stated commitment to promote "respect for the dignity of the animals in our care."

TIME FOR AZA TO CONDEMN THE CIRCUS

Several AZA specialist groups, including those that deal with Great Apes and monkeys, have officially condemned the use of these species in entertainment. It's past time for AZA's elephant group to follow suit.

Tell the zoos to sever ties with the cruel circus industry. If zoos want to educate the public about elephants, the place to start is by taking a stand against the use and abuse of these magnificent animals for entertainment.

Contact:

Jim Maddy, President and CEO
Association of Zoos & Aquariums
8403 Colesville Road, Suite 710
Silver Spring, MD 20910-3314
(P) 301-562-0777 X222
(F) 301-562-0888
(E) jmaddy@aza.org

Also write to the zoo in your community and request that it adopt a policy condemning the use of elephants in circuses and other entertainment venues. Find zoo contact information here

In Defense of Animals, located in San Rafael, Calif., is an international animal protection organization with more than 85,000 members and supporters dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by protecting their rights and welfare. IDA's efforts include educational events, cruelty investigations, boycotts, grassroots activism, and hands-on rescue through our sanctuaries in Mississippi, Mumbai, India, and Cameroon, Africa.

In Defense of Animals is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We welcome your feedback and appreciate your donations. Please join today! All donations to IDA are tax-deductible.

In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner, San Rafael, CA 94901
Tel. (415) 448-0048 Fax (415) 454-1031
idainfo@idausa.org