South African women chain themselves to UN office

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 South African women chain themselves to UN office

PSC Media Release
10/4/2002
Women chain themselves to UN offices in protest at UN inaction in
Palestine

As women in South Africa we cannot bear to watch - minute after
minute, hour after hour, day after day, week after week - as women and
children are massacred, murdered, maimed and mutilated in Palestine by
the brutal Israeli occupation forces. It has gone on too much and for
too long.

Our sisters in Palestine have had to endure 54 years of a catastrophe
and it has to stop!!!

Today, we - South African Women For Palestine - are chaining ourselves
to the entrance to the offices of the building housing six United
Nations offices - including the United Nations High Commission for
Refugees - to draw the attention of the world to the plight of the
women and children of Palestine. We have chosen this day for our act
of protest especially because today is the 54th anniversary of the
massacre at the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin where women and
children were butchered, including pregnant women who were murdered
and stuffed down the village well. The massacres currently under way
are worse!

We are also undertaking this action to protest against the inaction of
the United Nations. In the past week, the UN Security Council took two
resolutions which called on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian areas
that it has violently occupied. Israel - and its war criminal prime
minister, Ariel Sharon - simply snubbed its nose at the international
community and continued with the occupation. Yesterday another town,
Dora, was occupied.

And each day that the occupation continues, more women and more
children are killed. The most heart-rending scenes have been of the
Jenin refugee camp and of Nablus which were bombed indiscriminately:
shells, firing from helicopter gunships, etc.

And the world just watches.
We cannot watch any longer!!

We call on the UN to implement its resolutions. We demand that the UN
send a multi-national protection force to protect innocent Palestinian
civilians that are suffering at the guns of this madness.

We invite all women in South Africa to join us in protesting against the

brutal occupation and massacres.
Join us to support the women and children of Palestine.

Issued by: South African Women for Palestine

If you wish to interview any of the women that have chained themselves
to the doors of the UN offices, call 082 747 6134 or 082 653 8179.