Last month Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB) reported on the crackdown on human rights defenders, activists working for justice, and other nonviolent leaders in Israel and Palestine.

Now, when leaders and activists are most threatened, it is also a vital time to visit the West Bank and Israel.   Interfaith Peace-Builders is organizing two delegations this summer: The first is a May delegation led by Anna Baltzer and Cathy Sultan. A second delegation is planned for July by Jacob Pace and Miryam Rashid. 

Each year the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) awards two peace prizes to individuals or organizations whose commitment to peace, justice, and reconciliation is recognized as extraordinary. The awardees receive a cash prize and a commemorative scroll. FOR members and supporters are encouraged to submit nominations for the 2010 awards.

The deadline for nominations is April 30, 2010.

Read more about the awards and how to nominate your favorite individuals and organizations.

As plans are underway for an international conference in New York City on Nuclear disarmament, peace walks are planned (and in many cases are underway).  Various Buddhist communities have organized walks and invited others to join them either in the walk or by providing hospitality.   Walkers include Buddhist monks and nuns.  All are welcome.  One sponsoring community writes: "Please join us by walking for an hour, a day, or for the entirety. You can support us by organizing a community potluck, a sharing circle, a visit to your mayor, a place for our walkers to sleep, or coverage by the local media. Also please keep this walk in your thought and prayer."

Information on four walks has been shared with the Fellowship of Reconciliation.  All four walks culminate in New York City for the Rally and March on Sunday, May 2nd. The May 2nd Rally is an international call for an end to nuclear weapons in the US and around the world. 

Registration has opened for the International Conference, which will focus on eliminating nuclear weapons and addressing related nuclear issues.  The conference will be held in New York City on April 30 and May 1st to coincide with the official report to the United Nations monitoring the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).   

The conference at Riverside Church features speakers from around the world and opportunities for workshops in four areas: nuclear weapons abolition, peace, environmental sustainability, and economic justice. 

The registration fee is $30 per person (students with ID, $20). Early registration is encouraged.  See the attached registration form available as a downloadable form.  Space is limited to 800 to 1000 attendees.

In January, during his State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress, President Obama said his administration would make a treaty with Russia a priority.   The President noted that the country is "confronting perhaps the greatest danger to the American people – the threat of nuclear weapons."

The President has noted before that limiting nuclear weapons is not enough.   His State of the Union message renewed previous statements by Mr. Obama that nuclear weapons must be eliminated.   He acknowledged that his vision is in line with "the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan" envisioning a "world without them [nuclear weapons]."

Ever think about those killed in the war in Iraq?  You know the collateral damage of war - the people who didn't sign up for a war.

Conservative estimates peg the war dead at around 100,000. Other scientific estimates, which take into account unreported deaths, range up into the 1.4 million range. It's an impressive toll for 8 years of war.

The Iraq Memorial to Life - a project of the Fellowship of Reconciliation - is a memorial to Iraqis who have been killed as a result of the war.

It is an attempt to keep us from forgetting these Iraqis.

Make your plans today to be there to call for a peaceful, nuclear free, secure, and just world for us all!

Advocates for peace will be meeting in New York City on April 30-May 1st.   Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA) is one of more than 200 sponsors of the International Conference.   The conference coincides with the five year review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  Every five years a report is delivered to the United Nations which reviews not only the compliance of nations with the treaty's provisions but also recommends additional steps toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.

FOR-USA invites and encourages its members and friends to attend the international conference (April 30 - May 1) as well as a Rally and March planned for Sunday, May 2nd near Times Square.

Film and Discussion

 at FOR 

521 No. Broadway, Nyack, NY

March 21, 2010

2 - 5 PM

The next film to be shown as part of the Phil Greenspan film festival at the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Nyack, NY will take us on a healing journey to what is acknowledged by most to be akin to the heart of darkness; Auschwitz.   Directed by actor Michael O'Keefe, who participated in the pilgrimmage, the documentary brings us close to the stories of the 150 people that talked, comtemplated, prayed and meditated on and around the grounds of Auschwitz during the 1996 event. The group was composed of Americans and Europeans who are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and secular and who share their reflections during their time together. 

A war that goes on for 46 years -- some would say over 60 years -- gets tucked into all the most obscure tissues and corners and stories of a people. Its toxins surprise with surreal grotesquerie and impossible reasons. So in Colombia, our country's "closest ally" in South America, where capitalism and competition have extended so far that purchasing and sale of kidnap victims and electoral votes have become signatures of a ruthless business sense. Where politics is a business.

At the beginning of the screening of Rethink Afghanistan at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, I challenged the mostly "anti-war" audience to really look at the film critically and to examine the extent to which it would be genuinely persuasive to someone that did not already agree with the premise that the U.S. military role in Afghanistan was a bad thing. The film, produced and directed by Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation can be seen at their website,  in segments that are added to as the war continues to go on. Since our screening on 2/14/10, more segments have been made available that challenge the rationale of Obama's declaration to add another 30,000 troops.