MECA & ADC-SF Call "BART Alert" to protest attacks on Palestinian Children

Since January Israel has fired 7,000 artillery shells on Gaza. The Israeli government has prevented goods - including food and medicine - from entering Gaza and has illegally withheld tax revenues it owes the Palestinian Authority (PA). Meanwhile, the EU has stopped aid to the PA and the US has cut aid to humanitarian agencies.

These punitive measures have created a critical shortage of flour, baby formula, medicines, and other goods. Already, three children with serious kidney disease died because there was no dialysis solution for their regular treatments.

"This is a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions. Children are being killed, starved and deprived of medicines for life-threatening conditions," says Barbara Lubin, Founder and Director of the Middle East Children's Alliance, a humanitarian aid organization in Berkeley founded in 1988. Monadel El Abed, a Palestinian American from Gaza and board member of ADC-SF adds, "I have family in Gaza who are living with terrible fear and hardship every day. Meanwhile, as an American citizen, my tax dollars are shifting from urgently needed programs like health care and public education to paying for the Israeli shells that are raining down on children." Dr. Mona ElFarra, a physician in Gaza City and MECA’s Director of Gaza Projects says “Israel has a free hand to kill us in Palestine with the full support of the United States.” Lubin and El Abed both spoke at the demonstration.