‘STOP THE WALL’ TOUR
COMING TO EUGENE
The wall that the conservative Israeli gov-
ernment is building in the West Bank, despite
loud outcries from the Israeli people, looms
26 feet high in places and already snakes
close to 100 miles through Palestinian vil-
lages and farmlands.
The project is in its third year of construc-
tion and includes a complex series of elec-
tronic fences and concrete walls. Beginning
in the northern part of the West Bank, the first
phase of the project is complete. Already
200,000 people living in the area have been
directly affected by the Wall, with 3,670
acres of land razed for the Wall’s construc-
tion.
Within this first phase, 16 villages and
30,000 acres west of the Wall have been de
facto annexed to Israel and some 50 villages
are separated from their lands. The Israeli
government has confiscated 36 groundwater
wells in this area well know for its agricul-
tural value and has uprooted some 102,000
trees.
The first phase also saw massive demoli-
tions. More than 200 shops in the northwest
village of Nazlet Issa were destroyed in a sin-
gle afternoon.
The world has attempted to voice its col-
lective outrage over the Wall several times
over the past two years. On Sept. 16, 2003,
the United Nations Security Council voted on
a resolution condemning the wall but it was
vetoed by the U.S.
Angered by the U.S. veto, the world
spoke again. On Oct. 21, 2003, the U.N.
General Assembly voted 144-4 condemning
the wall, with only the U.S., Israel,
Micronesia and the Marshall Islands voting
against it.
With a ruling on the legality of the Wall by
the World Court at the Hague only days away,
a “Stop the Wall Tour” kicks off in Portland
on July 2 and will cross the U.S. to educate
American taxpayers both about the Wall it-
self and about how U.S. tax dollars are being
used to build it.
This Saturday, July 3, the tour stops in
Eugene. A display will be set up at the Free
Speech Plaza, 8th and Oak, from 10 am to 4
pm, and will show several scale models of
this concrete structure to provide people a
chance to see for themselves what it looks
like.
At 6 pm Saturday at Cozmic Pizza, hydro-
geologist and human rights and peace activist
John Reese will present images and describe
BY PAUL NEEVEL
Emily Graham-Berks &
Paige Semich
Since last September, Emily
Graham-Berks and Paige Semich
have worked full-time at HIV
Alliance as Americorps volunteers.
Graham-Berks, who grew up in
Bandon, took a year off from her
UO Family and Human Services
studies to run the Alliance’s nee-
dle-exchange program, currently
threatened by budget cuts. “We
exchange about 52,000 needles
per month,” she says. “Prevention
is so much cheaper than even one case of AIDS.” Semich, who grew up in Bend and
earned UO degrees in fine arts and international studies, does HIV testing and coun-
seling at the Alliance. “When I’m testing people, I give them education about STD risk
factors,” she says. “I’m passionate about prevention.” When their current Americorps
assignments end on July 31, Graham-Berks will return to school, but continue to work
part-time as a paid case worker. Semich hopes to renew her Americorps position for a
second year. “They’re both very dedicated and compassionate people — they’re here
40 hours a week,” says Kelly Moore, counseling and testing director at HIV Alliance.
“Our clients appreciate them as well as we do.” — Paul Neevel
6 JULY 1, 2004
the range of impacts of the Wall on the envi-
ronment, on Israelis and Palestinians and on
the peace process. Reese spent seven months
in 2002 in the West Bank and Gaza and saw
the first stages of the Wall’s construction.
While there, he worked with several
Palestinian environmental NGOs to map the
path of the wall and document the path of de-
struction to the environment and affected
communities.
“The first time I gazed up at that three-
story high concrete mass in Qalqilya, I knew
I had to tell others in the United States how
our tax dollars were being used to destroy
lives, livelihoods and hope,” he says.
“I saw my tax dollars destroying the
chance for peace. I struggled to understand
how this could make Israelis more secure and
learned from Israelis I spoke to that many
agree it does exactly the opposite.”
— Aria Seligmann
KELLY OBJECTS TO EW
RIVERFRONT STORY
Eugene Councilor David Kelly, in re-
sponse to a news story last week
that said he was willing to sac-
rifice the riverfront for the
hospital says, “I never said
anything remotely like that.”
Kelly says what he said was
that “due to the limited num-
ber of possible hospital sites ac-
ceptable to McKenzie/Triad, we may need to
ultimately decide whether we are willing to
accept a road north of the tracks for up to half
a mile or be willing to give up the idea of
maintaining a hospital in Eugene.”
Kelly also says he hopes that “an alterna-
tive routing with less road length north of the
railroad tracks can be designed.” One option,
he says, would be to build a road just south of
the tracks and cross the tracks closer to the
proposed hospital site.
But Kelly told EW that he would support a
new road through the undeveloped riverfront
area if he thought it was the only way to get a
new hospital to locate at the EWEB site.
What would the impact of a road north of
the tracks be? “It all depends on how it’s built
and where it’s built,” Kelly says, noting that
the new road could “hug the tracks” or bifur-
cate the riverfront property as it does in ear-
lier Riverfront Research Park drawings. “It
will certainly create more noise, and that’s a
negative impact. But it’s a huge leap to say
that a road with comparatively light traffic
will ‘sacrifice’ the riverfront.”
Opponents to the road are also concerned
that the road will damage the riverfront by
enabling the construction of the massive hos-
pital and parking lots and the six large office
buildings, two parking garages and five park-
ing lots the UO has planned to build in the
natural area.
Kelly also objected to the EW story saying
the “city appears to be rushing forward with
the massive project” and that the plans did
not go to a public hearing before a council
vote. Kelly says the public will have an op-
portunity for input later. — TJT
OREGON ANALYST CALLS
FOR TAX CUT REPEAL
What will be the long-term impact of the
White House’s tax cuts and deficit spending?
It’s not a pretty picture, according to Michael
Leachman, analyst for the Oregon Center for
Public Policy in the non-profit’s June report.
“The Bush tax cuts will result in a massive
redistribution of income,” says Leachman.
“Money slips out of your wallet and slides
through the window of a passing limou-
sine.”
He says some economists call the tax
cuts “Dooh Nibor Economics” because
they will ultimately produce a “backwards
Robin Hood effect.”
“The ultimate effect of the cuts, especially
once many of them are made permanent, is so
beneficial to the richest Americans that it will
be difficult and unlikely for Congress to pro-
duce a method of paying for the cuts that re-
quires the wealthiest households to pay their
fair share.”
Leachman says there’s only one way to
avoid the coming shake-down: repeal a sig-
nificant portion of the tax cuts — the sooner
the better.
He says a new study by the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities and the Tax
Policy Center “provides strong evidence that
most Americans will end up being net losers
once the bill for the tax cuts comes due.
Ultimately, the study finds, the cost of the tax
cuts will overwhelm the immediate benefits
for nearly all middle- and low-income
Americans.”
More information can be found at
www.ocpp.org