Dear San Francisco friends,

My wonderful student, Philip Rizk, was abducted Friday night by Egyptian state security forces because of his peaceful activities in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Philip is someone who is deeply committed to peace, and who has worked tirelessly his whole life toward that goal. He lived in Gaza as a reporter, neighbor and friend for several years, and just recently completed a documentary about non-violent forms of resistance to the occupation there. He is one of those rare souls who studies anthropology not out of any sort of academic ambition whatsoever, but out of a deep and abiding desire to use anthropological tools (like ethnographic film) to end suffering. He is passionate about his dream to bring back to Egypt (where he is from) and the Middle East the legacy of tolerance and diversity that for so many centuries defined this region. Sadly, his peaceful activities were significantly threatening to the Egyptian government--which has colluded with the Israeli state to prevent aid from reaching Gazans and refused to open the Rafah border crossing--for it to respond with violence. Please come out on Thursday, Philip's 27th birthday, to demand his immediate release. It is incumbent on us to act; after all, it is US tax dollars that fund Egypt's dictatorship and the neighboring apartheid regime that Philip has so courageously dedicated himself to ending.

Thank you,
Adrienne Pine

For details, please see the New York Times article (http://tiny.cc/bWT1k) and the website: http://freephiliprizk.org

If you can't make it to the event, you can still contact the Consul General, Dr. Hesham Elnakib, at (415) 346-9700

Directions:
By bike: from dowtown & the Mission, take your favorite route to North Beach (Embarcadero, Columbus or Van Ness), then left on Bay St., continue straight past Fort Mason, veer right on Cervantes and make a hard left at Beach/Mallorca; from the Haight, take Steiner over Pacific Heights, jog right to Mallorca at Chestnut; from Richmond/Sunset, take Arguello Blvd through the Presidio to Lombard Gate, jog left/North to Chestnut, left on Mallorca.

By transit:
take Muni Rte. 22 to Fillmore/Beach stop and walk a block West to Mallorca, then turn left; or take Muni Rte. 30 to Chestnut/Mallorca stop and walk two blocks north (toward the ocean).

By car:
Take Hwy 101 (from North or South) to intersection with Fillmore St. Turn north on Fillmore, left on Chestnut and right on Mallorca. Parking available in the center divide of Fillmore or at the public lot at the Marina.

By helicopter:
N 37.803562°, W 122.439282°