April, 17 2009, 09:25am EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jodie Evans, CODEPINK co-founder, 310-621-5635
Nancy Mancias, CODEPINK event coordinator, 415-342-6409
Jean Stevens, CODEPINK national media coordinator, 508-769-2138
Women Nationwide to Join Inspiring 24-hour Peace Vigil This Mother's Day in DC
From Toronto, Tuscon, Schenectady, NY and dozens more cities and
towns around the world, mothers, veterans, nurses, students, lawyers
and businesswomen will flock this Mother's Day weekend to Lafayette
Park here for a 24-hour vigil to honor women living under occupation worldwide, hosted by CODEPINK and co-sponsored by the National Organization of Women, MADRE, the https://www.feminis
WASHINGTON
From Toronto, Tuscon, Schenectady, NY and dozens more cities and
towns around the world, mothers, veterans, nurses, students, lawyers
and businesswomen will flock this Mother's Day weekend to Lafayette
Park here for a 24-hour vigil to honor women living under occupation worldwide, hosted by CODEPINK and co-sponsored by the National Organization of Women, MADRE, the Feminist Peace Network and nearly 34 other human rights organizations.
WHAT: CODEPINK to host 24 hours of Mother's Day workshops, entertainment and actions for women and children
WHEN: 1 p.m. to 1 p.m. May 9 to May 10
WHERE: Lafayette Park (1608 H Street NW), Washington, D.C. (across the street from White House)
The women and their families, who from 1 p.m. May 9 to 1 p.m. May
10 will participate in workshops, a children's fair, discussions with
women who've lived in war-torn countries, a colorful march around the
White House and a radical act of knitting using 6,000 squares knitted
by women worldwide (read more about that here) will reflect on the original purpose of Mother's Day, a Civil War plea to mothers to peace.
"I truly believe women, organized and mobilized, can be a
formidable, powerful force in the movement toward a world free of war,"
said Cynthia Benjamin, a nurse from rural New York whose son is
currently serving in Iraq. "To speak truth to power, I will join
CODEPINK for Mother's Day to work toward a more just and peaceful
planet."
Saturday's events will also include a concert by independent rocker Melissa Ivey,
and on Sunday, CODEPINK will host a powerful interfaith service,
creative actions and more. All events are inspired by abolitionist
Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Peace Proclamation.
Howe, horrified by the devastation of the Civil War and the death of
America's men, wrote the Proclamation to call on America's women to
gather together to "promote the alliance of the different
nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the
great and general interests of peace."
"In war, women pay the biggest prices," said Jodie Evans, CODEPINK
co-founder. "They lose their children, their home, their family, are
abused and left to put it all back together. Still they are not in the
decision-making process, they are not at the negotiating table. We need
to shed light on this fact and change it, beginning with this
incredibly powerful vigil in honor of the original call to Mother's
Day."
Many CODEPINK groups across America will host solidarity Mother's
Day events to honor women living within occupation worldwide. To find
an event, please visit the CODEPINK action calendar here.
24-hour vigil schedule (tentative, more details to come)
Saturday, May 9
1 to 2:30 pm: Event Kick-off and Scavenger Hunt!
2:30 to 5 pm : Quilting Bee/Radical Knitting, Singing and Circling the White House in Pink
We'll
bind knitted squares, knitted by women across the country, to form a
quilt with the message "We will not raise our children to kill another
mother's child" to string on the White House fence. Then we'll circle
the White House in a children's march for peace!
5 to 6:30 p.m. : Learning Circles and Story-telling
Women
are invited to participate in teach-ins that will educate and inspire
us to create the world we want to live in. Meanwhile, kids can enjoy
story-telling sessions.
7:30 pm to 10 pm : "Women's Voices From War Zones" and Singer-Songwriter Melissa Ivey
Afghan,
Iraqi and Pakistani women will share their perspective as women living
under occupation and offer ideas for change. Indie singer-songrwriter
Melissa Ivey will then take the stage to rev up the crowd.
Sunday, May 10
2 to 4 a.m. - Activist Training Workshops and Hula-Hooping with co-founder Medea Benjamin
Guests
will learn valuable skills for creative protest, media outreach, local
group coordinating, strategizing to end war, and more. Renowned clown
Patch Adams will lead "What is your love strategy?" and co-founder
Medea Benjamin will host a hula-hooping session.
4 to 7 a.m. : Pink Pajama Party!
Join in the fun! We'll have a pink scavenger hunt, hula-hooping, yoga, singing, and more!
7 a.m. to 8 a.m. : Walter Reed Peace Delegation flower delivery
A
delegation of women will deliver hundreds of roses to mothers at Walter
Reed Hospital visiting their children, demonstrating their support.
9 to 10 a.m. : Interfaith Service
To honor all the
mothers that have been victimized by the war in Iraq, we will sing,
chant, dance and listen to women from Goddess, Buddhist, Jewish,
Christian, Muslim and Unitarian traditions.
10 to 11:30 am : Children Peace Wishes
Little Friends
for Peace, a non-profit peace education program for children, will lead
the children in sharing their wishes for peace.
12:30 to 1 pm : Closing Ceremony of Roses to the White House
All participants will deliver roses to the White House.
For more information, please call Jean Stevens, national media coordinator, at 508-769-2138 or email at jean@codepinkalert.org, or Jodie Evans, at 310-621-5635 or Jodie@codepinkalert.org.
CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.
(818) 275-7232LATEST NEWS
At Least 95 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attacks Including Massacres at Beach Café, Aid Points
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Israeli forces ramped up their genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip Monday, killing at least 95 Palestinians in attacks including massacres at a seaside café and a humanitarian aid distribution center and bombings of five school shelters housing displaced families and a hospital where refugees were sheltering in tents.
An Israeli strike targeted the al-Baqa Café in western Gaza City, one of the few operating businesses remaining after 633 days of Israel's obliteration of the coastal strip and a popular gathering place for journalists, university students, artists, and others seeking reliable internet service and a respite from nearly 21 months of near-relentless attacks.
Medical sources said at least 33 civilians were killed and nearly 50 others wounded in the massacre, including footballer Mustafa Abu Amira, photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab—who survived an earlier Israeli airstrike and is reportedly the 227th journalists killed by Israel since October 2023—and prominent artist Frans Al-Salmi, whose final painting depicting a young Palestinian woman killed by Israeli forces resembles photographs of its slain creator posted on social media after her killing.
Warning: Photos shows image of death
Survivor Ali Abu Ateila toldThe Associated Press that the café was crowded with women and children at the time of the attack.
"Without a warning, all of a sudden, a warplane hit the place, shaking it like an earthquake," he said.
Another survivor of the massacre told Britain's Sky News: "All I see is blood... Unbelievable. People come here to take a break from what they see inside Gaza. They come westward to breathe."
Eyewitness Ahmed Al-Nayrab toldAgence France-Presse that a "huge explosion shook the area."
"I saw body parts flying everywhere, and bodies cut and burned," he said. "It was a scene that made your skin crawl."
Witnesses and officials said Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops opened fire on Palestinians seeking food and other humanitarian aid from a U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution point in southern Gaza, killing 15 people amid near-daily massacres of aid-seekers.
"We were targeted by artillery," survivor Monzer Hisham Ismail told The Associated Press. Another survivor, Yousef Mahmoud Mokheimar, told the AP that Israeli troops "fired at us indiscriminately." Mokheimar was shot in the leg, another man who tried to rescue him was also shot.
IDF troops have killed nearly 600 Palestinian aid-seekers and wounded more than 4,000 others over the past month, with Israeli military officers and soldiers saying they were ordered to deliberately fire on civilians in search of food and other necessities amid Israel's weaponized starvation of Gaza.
Another 13 people were reportedly killed Monday when IDF warplanes bombed an aid warehouse in the Zeitoun quarter of southern Gaza City, according to al-Ahli Baptist Hospital officials cited by The Palestine Chronicle. IDF warplanes also reportedly bombed five schools housing displaced families, three of them in Zeitoun. Israeli forces also bombed the courtyard of al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinian families are sheltering in tents. It was reportedly the 12th time the hospital has been bombed since the start of the war.
The World Health Organization has documented more than 700 attacks on Gaza healthcare facilities since October 2023. Most of Gaza's hospitals are out of service due to Israeli attacks, some of which have been called genocidal by United Nations experts.
Israel's overall behavior in the war is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and using starvation as a weapon of war.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed or wounded more than 204,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 14,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried under rubble, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, whose casualty figures have been found to be generally accurate and even a likely undercount by peer-reviewed studies.
The intensified IDF attacks follow Israel's issuance of new forced evacuation orders amid the ongoing Operation Gideon's Chariots, an ongoing offensive which aims to conquer and indefinitely occupy all of Gaza and ethnically cleanse much of its population, possibly to make way for Jewish recolonization as advocated by many right-wing Israelis.
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Gaza officials have reported that hundreds of Palestinians—including at least 66 children—have died in Gaza from malnutrition and lack of medicine since Israel ratcheted up its siege in early March. Earlier this month, the United Nations Children's Fund warned that childhood malnutrition was "rising at an alarming rate," with 5,119 children under the age of 5 treated for the life-threatening condition in May alone. Of those treated children, 636 were diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, the most lethal form of the condition.
Meanwhile, nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 others have been injured as Israeli occupation forces carry out near-daily massacres of desperate people seeking food and other humanitarian aid at or near distribution sites run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Israel Defense Forces officers and troops have said that they were ordered to shoot and shell aid-seeking Gazans, even when they posed no threat.
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Since launching the retaliatory annihilation of Gaza in response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Israeli forces have killed at least 56,531 Palestinians and wounded more than 133,600 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which also says over 14,000 people are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Upward of 2 million Gazans have been forcibly displaced, often more than once.
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated a call for a cease-fire deal that would secure the release of the remaining 22 living Israeli and other hostages held by Hamas.
In addition to Tlaib, the letter to Rubio was signed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Democratic Reps. Greg Casar (Texas), Jesús "Chuy" García (Ill.), Al Green (Texas), Jonathan Jackson (Ill.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Henry "Hank"Johnson (Ga.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Jim McGovern (Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Chellie Pingree (Maine), Mark Pocan (Wisc.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Paul Tonko (N.Y.), Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.).
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"Jake Sullivan's been a critical decision-maker in every Democratic catastrophe of the last decade," said one observer. "Why is he still in the inner circle?"
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Amid the latest battle over the direction the Democratic Party should move in, a number of strategists and political advisers from across the center-left's ideological spectrum are assembling a committee to determine the policy agenda they hope will be taken up by a Democratic successor to President Donald Trump.
Some of the names on the list of people crafting the agenda—named Project 2029, an echo of the far-right Project 2025 blueprint Trump is currently enacting—left progressives with deepened concerns that party insiders have "learnt nothing" and "forgotten nothing" from the president's electoral victories against centrist Democratic candidates over the past decade, as one economist said.
The project is being assembled by former Democratic speechwriter Andrei Cherny, now co-founder of the policy journal Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, and includes Jake Sullivan, a former national security adviser under the Biden administration; Jim Kessler, founder of the centrist think tank Third Way; and Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and longtime adviser to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Progressives on the advisory board for the project include economist Justin Wolfers and former Roosevelt Institute president Felicia Wong, but antitrust expert Hal Singer said any policy agenda aimed at securing a Democratic victory in the 2028 election "needs way more progressives."
As The New York Times noted in its reporting on Project 2029, the panel is being convened amid extensive infighting regarding how the Democratic Party can win back control of the White House and Congress.
After democratic socialist and state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani's (D-36) surprise win against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week in New York City's mayoral primary election—following a campaign with a clear-eyed focus on making childcare, rent, public transit, and groceries more affordable—New York City has emerged as a battleground in the fight. Influential Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have so far refused to endorse him and attacked him for his unequivocal support for Palestinian rights.
Progressives have called on party leaders to back Mamdani, pointing to his popularity with young voters, and accept that his clear message about making life more affordable for working families resonated with Democratic constituents.
But speaking to the Times, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake exemplified how many of the party's strategists have insisted that candidates only need to package their messages to voters differently—not change the messages to match the political priorities of Mamdani and other popular progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
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Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have drawn crowds of thousands in red districts this year at Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy rallies—another sign, progressives say, that voters are responding to politicians who focus on billionaires' outsized control over the U.S. political system and on economic justice.
Project 2029's inclusion of strategists like Kessler, who declared economic populism "a dead end for Democrats" in 2013, demonstrates "the whole problem [with Democratic leadership] in a nutshell," said Jonathan Cohn of Progressive Mass—as does Sullivan's seat on the advisory board.
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