Wheels of Justice

After serving in the Army, Jake attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids,MI and then the Univ. of Michigan, where he received a masters degree in social work. Following that, all his work experience was in child welfare services, as a foster care caseworker, administrator of two child care institutions, and administrator of Michigan’s child welfare licensing services. Following that Jake worked in the US Children’s Bureau for 20 years as a child welfare specialist.

Since retiring 10 years ago, Jake have been involved mainly in three areas, family activities, child welfare services, and promotion of peace; this included spending two weeks in the West Bank with Christian Peacemaker Teams in 2004.

Dr. Dahlia Wasfi was born in New York, New York in 1971. She spent her early childhood in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq until she returned with her family to the United States in 1977. Dr. Wasfi graduated from Swarthmore College in 1993 with a B.A. in Biology, and from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1997. Her latest trip to Iraq was a 3-month stay during the spring of 2006, when she traveled to see her family in Basrah. Based on her experiences, she is speaking out against the negative impact of the U.S. invasion on the Iraqi people and the need to end the occupation “from the Nile to the Euphrates.”

Dahlia’s personal website can be found at www.liberatethis.com

David Johnson, 26, is an professional artist, teacher, and activist from Denver, Colorado. A recent graduate of Princeton University where he majored in Philosophy, David believes that art can be one means of expressing the human struggle for Social Justice of the poor, exploited, and marginalized. Art has a unique potential to affirm the humanity of those who have been stripped of it. David also loves to use local, eclectic religious symbolism in his murals, seeking the essential nature of love central to all the three of the Abrahimic religions.

In pursuit of this goal, he took years away from Princeton in 2002-2003 in order to paint murals with children and with professional artists in rural El Salvador. The largest project he worked on there was a large mural that depicted the Massacre of the River Sumpul. The massacre happened in 1980, in which at least 600 farmers, women and children were forced into a ravine and gunned at from both sides by an army that was trained in the United States and was receiving millions of dollars of funding from the US government. Only four people survived this massacre, but their story could not be suppressed. David was pleased to be supported in his work by the generosity of the local community. In this mural and others, David incorporated the unique and beautiful style of local artisans, interviewed locals, and painted with youth. These youth went on to paint murals of their own.

David was part of the Peace movement at Princeton during the build up to the Iraq war, and he was also a member of the Palestine-Israel Dialogue Board. In the summer of 2007 David lived with Palestinian family in Beit Sahour and studied History and Arabic at Bethlehem University. While there he had the chance to direct the painting of a few murals in Beit Sahour, Aida Refugee camp, and the town of Al-Khudar. David’s projects in Palestine sought to capture the beauty of the people and their diverse culture, and to emphasize clearly the fundamental human rights of education, safety, self-determination, cultural expression, economic freedom, freedom of movement, and the Palestinian refugees Right of Return. Also these wall paintings attacked The Apartheid Wall, and the illegal occupation that has stripped away and continues to deny the Palestinians’ fundamental human rights. His experience in Palestine was life-changing, and he will to continue to speak out about the injustice inflicted upon Palestinians. David is a student of the history and the root causes of the system of oppression in Palestine. His study attempts to fearlessly uncover the criminal exploitation, from the US and elsewhere, of the ideological conflicts apparent within the Palestine/Israel conflict and the conflicts of the larger Arab World, a world that has been systematically destabilized and divided for a very specific, and dangerous kind of economic and political gain.

Joel Gulledge, 27, is a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams in Palestine. Joel grew up in Bruce, Mississippi, and was constantly active as a youth with the Southern Baptist Church until college. During that time Joel volunteered in shelters for homeless and battered women, and in the summer of 1999 worked with the North American Mission Board in an outreach program for youth in Northborough, Massachusetts. While studying sociology at the University of Memphis TN, Joel was a regular volunteer with the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, SUSTAIN, and Food Not Bombs. Joel has organized multiple concerts to benefit local grassroots organizations.

During 2004-2006, Joel traveled around the Occupied Palestinian Territories an opportunity to make an immediate impact on a worsening human rights struggle. While in the West Bank, he helped harvest olives, planted olive trees in demolished groves, confronted military checkpoints, and spent time with ordinary families living an everyday human life under an inhuman military occupation. Joel brings these stories of occupation, nonviolence and dignity in the face of humiliation and violence back to people here in the US.

Joel is founder of Tuwani.org, and has contributed articles to Electronic Intifada and The Peacemaker.

Joel loves music, art, books, and his community. He can be reached at joel@vcnv.org

Tammara Rosenleaf is the wife of Army Specialist Sean Hefflin, who serves with the 4th Infantry Division, currently deployed to Iraq.

Tammara spent 22 days in Crawford, Texas at Camp 1 during the summer of 2005. She was a key organizer in the Crawford Peace Movement, and subsequently went on the Bring Them Home Now Tour, speaking at 25 events over a period of 21 days, driving the bus over 4000 miles, and providing organization for the tour. Tammara attended the September 24, 2005 march in Washington DC, and has since spoken at events from Eyes Wide Open in Ithaca, New York, to college peace gatherings in Washington State.

She is a member of Military Families Speak Out, Helena (MT) Peace Seekers, as well as a supporter of the Iraq Vets Against the War and the Veterans for Peace. She was on the organizing team for the Thanksgiving and Easter Gatherings at Crawford. She organized the civil disobedience at those gatherings and is the coordinator of the Prairie Chapel 12+6. She is also one of the 5 named plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit that has arisen out of the the McClennan County Court’s refusal to give the Prairie Chapel 12+6 their day in court.

Her husband believes in and supports her work for peace. He is openly proud of her work to his fellow troops and says that one of the reasons he is a solider “is to support people’s rights. Tammara has a right to free speech and its exercise, and it would be a poor reward for my sacrifice if she failed to use it.”

Through 2006, while her husband has been deployed, she has continued her work in the anti-war movement, speaking in a number of venues, participating in Military Families Speak Out Operation House Call, holding screenings of “The Ground Truth“, organizing and speaking at the display of the national traveling memorial “Eyes Wide Open“.

Tammara has been active in social justice movements since the Vietnam War, and had four uncles that served in that war, including her Uncle Jim who died of bone cancer related to Agent Orange in April of 2005. It is Tammara’s passionate belief that the people of this country are the only power that can stop the illegal, immoral war in Iraq and she has dedicated herself to that cause. She requests the prayers of the nation for her husband, and for all our troops.

Dr. Hassan Fouda is an independent science consultant and former Assistant Director at Global Research and Development, Pfizer, Inc. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Tandem Lab, a Contract Research Organization based in Salt Lake City Utah. Currently, Hassan, serves on the Board of Directors of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD-USA: www.ICAHD.org). He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition and served as the Connecticut chair. He is also active in several educational and interfaith peace advocacy groups including the Council for National Interest (CNIonline .org), If Americans Knew (IfAmericansKnew.org) and the Connecticut based We Refuse to be Enemies (Jews, Moslems and Christians in Coalition for Peace).

In January 2006, Dr. Fouda was a member of a delegation from the Council for the National Interest that participated as international observers to the recent Palestinian elections. The delegation which included two former U.S. ambassadors, met with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon, with Amr Mousa, Secretary General of the Arab League, with other officials, Islamist and other opposition leaders and opinion makers in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine-Israel. Dr. Fouda returned to Israel-Palestine in February 2006 with an American interfaith delegation seeking to find and amplify voices of hope and accommodation among Israelis and Palestinians.

Joe Carr is an anti-oppression activist and performance artist from Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated with a BA from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 2004, having organized with direct-action movements such as Earth First, Food Not Bombs, and Arts in Activism. He spent January-April of 2003 coordinating for the International Solidarity Movement in Rafah, Palestine, and witnessed Israeli soldiers murder international activists Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall. He spent May-June 2005 with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, as well as another two trips in Palestine organizing nonviolent resistance to the Israeli Occupation. He has done two national speaking tours, appeared in several documentaries, has had his writing published in major media outlets, and produced two albums of his music and poetry. For more information on Joe, www.lovinrevolution.org/?q=bio.htm.

Lysander Puccio is a member of the International Solidarity Movement. She has volunteered several times in the Occupied West Bank supporting Palestinian led non-violent direct action against the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. She is currently producing a documentary about Palestinian Christians and their experiences of occupation and exile.

During her most recent trip to the region in the spring of 2005, she taught a class in video production to Palestinian Christian and Muslim teenagers who produced a segment to be included in the documentary. She also immersed herself in the richness of Christian ritual, community service, and life throughout the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and within the 1948 boundaries of Israel.

In New York City where she lives, Lysander is a member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Harlem and has been active in social justice organizing and advocacy for many years. She works closely with groups such as Jews Against the Occupation to educate and inform diverse communities about the day to day realities of the Israeli occupation and United States support of it.

A video-activist, she founded an award-winning project to teach low-income New Yorkers and activists video production. Her video “Once Upon A Time: Welfare Made A Difference”, introduced by US Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, has been screened across the country. She holds a BA in Religious Studies from Hunter College, CUNY.

Lysander returned from Palestine August 2005.

(On Tour Oct 3-20, 2006)

Joe Mueller, 25, lives Cleveland, Ohio as a member of the Cleveland Catholic Worker Community. He has worked as a community organizer with residents of a diverse neighborhood organizing around issues of race and social equality. Joe was a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams’ September 2005 delegation to Iraq, where he met with Iraqis living and working in Baghdad, Kerbala, and Najaf. He is the oldest of five siblings; his family lives in Michigan.

Elce Redmond, a community organizer and lifelong resident of Chicago, has been working with community groups throughout the city on issues such as housing, heat assistance, healthcare, and human rights for more than 20 years. He has conducted leadership development and political development and political eduation projects in Bosnia-herzigovina, Ireland, Argentina, East Timor, and Cote D’Ivoire. Most recently, Redmond went to Bagdad with the Christian Peacemaker Team to advocate and organize on behalf of detainees in Iraq. Here in Chicago, he has worked closely with labor unions and the community to bring attention to issues of economic justice, including the the Wal-Mart campaign.

Twyla Meyer first experienced the effects of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine in the summer of 1989, when she and her husband volunteered for the Nazareth Work Camp during the first Intifada.

In 2003, 2004 and 2005, she traveled to the West Bank and worked with ISM. The work took her to Nablus, Tulkarem, Bilin’, Hebron, and other villages and cities to participate in checkpoint watches and nonviolent vigils and rallies.

She is actively involved in antiwar activities, and a member of the planners for the Detroit Women In Black.

Twyla, age 60, uses her poetry to reinforce her antiwar and human rights message.

Hedy Epstein (née Wachenheimer) of Freiburg, Germany was 8 years old when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany on January 30, 1933. She remembers her parents and other adults talking about Hitler, saying that they hoped he would not gain power in Germany, and then, after he did, hoping that he would not remain in office very long.

On May 18, 1939, the holocaust gathering steam, Hedy went to England on a children’s transport. Hedy’s parents had tried for many years to leave Germany as a family, but were unsuccessful, due to emigration restrictions in various countries around the world. Five hundred children were on this transport, part of the almost 10,000 children that England took in between December 1938 and September 1, 1939, the beginning of World War II. Hedy never saw her family again.

Hedy’s parents and other family members were deported on October 22, 1940 to Camp de Gurs, a concentration camp in what was then Vichy France. Due to an aberration of the war, inmates of the camp in Gurs could correspond with the outside world. Each person was allowed to write one page each week. Hedy’s parents sent her letters for the next two years, but they were careful not to mention the atrocious living conditions they had to endure. They wanted to protect their daughter. The last communication Hedy ever received from her mother was a postcard dated September 4, 1942. The postcard said, “Traveling to the east … Sending you a final goodbye.”

Hedy spent the rest of World War II in England. She went to school and then went to work in a variety of jobs, including a factory producing war materials.

Once the war was over, Hedy went back to Germany to work for the American government—first with the US Civil Censorship Division, and later at the Nuremberg Medical Trial, which tried the doctors accused of performing medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. Part of her reason for returning to Germany was to find her family, but she was unsuccessful.

Hedy came to the United States in May 1948. Her only living relatives were an uncle and an aunt who had emigrated to the US in early 1938. Once here, she worked in a variety of jobs. Although she did not realize it at the time, many of those jobs were part of her quest to find her parents and her family. Soon, Hedy became active professionally and personally in the causes of civil and human rights and social justice. Some of her causes have included fair housing, abortion rights, and antiwar activities. As a peace delegate, Hedy journeyed to Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Cambodia.

Hedy Epstein brought her peace witness to Palestine winter 2003; in her own words: “In Bethlehem, I saw a Caterpillar bulldozer ripping up centuries-old olive trees to clear a path for rolled razor wire and antitank trenches dividing the town where Jesus was born.

In Qalqilia, I was dwarfed by Israel’s separation wall rising more than 25 feet. In President George W. Bush’s phrase, it “snakes in and out of the West Bank.” It keeps farmers from their fields and hems in 50,000 residents on all sides.

In Masha, I joined a demonstration against this wall. I saw a red sign warning ominously of “MORTAL DANGER” to any who dare cross this fence. Then I saw Israeli soldiers aiming at unarmed Israeli and international protesters. I saw blood pouring out of Gil Na’amati, a young Israeli whose first public act after completing his military service was to protest against this wall. I saw shrapnel lodged in the leg of Anne Farina, one of my traveling companions from St. Louis. And I thought of Kent State and Jackson State, where National Guardsmen opened fire in 1970 on protesters against the Vietnam War.

Near Der Beilut, I saw the Israeli police turn a water cannon on our nonviolent protest. And I remembered Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 and wondered why a democratic society responds to peaceable assembly by trying literally to drown out the voice of our protest.”

Hedy Epstien is a member of the Speakers Bureau of the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center and the Speakers Bureau of the Missouri Humanities Council. Her writings have been published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Louis Jewish Light, Frost Illustrated of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and others. In addition, Hedy’s autobiography was published in May 1999 by Unrast-Verlag, a German company. The book, titled Erinnern ist nicht genug: Autobiographie von Hedy Epstein (“Remembering Is Not Enough: The Autobiography of Hedy Epstein”), is available in German. The book, written by Hedy, covers her entire life and her experiences. Her story is featured in the Academy Award winning documentary, “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport.”

Ellen O’Grady is an artist and social justice activist in Durham, North Carolina. She majored in Theology in college and afterwards spent six years living in Palestine and Israel. Ellen has returned several times since to work with a variety of grassroots activist groups.

Ellen’s paintings have been shown in galleries and museums throughout the country. She has been awarded a number of fellowships and grants and her work in Palestine led to several commisioned public projects.

Much of Ellen’s work draws from her time in Palestine and Israel and reflects on the present conflict revealing the human faces behind the ongoing tragedy. She is currently on a nation-wide tour to promote her new book, “Outside the Ark: An Artist’s Journey in Occupied Palestine”. It is the culmination of her painting series of the same name whose inspiration came from her time living and working in the West Bank. The work has been presented in over 150 venues across the country, including universities, high schools, bookstores, galleries, local theaters, churches, and Islamic and Jewish centers.

A full biography and resume as well as reviews of her book and articles on her tour can be found on her website www.ellenogrady.com.

Dougherty spent 10 months in Iraq with the 220th Military Police Company and is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. On finding herself in the spotlight: “It’s definitely nerve-wracking. I came into it really suddenly. I’m more comfortable now: I just know that my story is one that needs to be heard and that there are a lot of veterans who can’t speak out.”

Dan Winters recently returned from New Orleans, where he worked in support and relief efforts with Veterans for Peace; at age 17, Winters joined the Army for 3 years and served in Korea and Germany following the wars. Dan Winters is also a veteran of the peace movement and has made several trips to Iraq, most recently in January and February of 2003. In 2001, he attempted to transport medical relief across the Israeli border into the West Bank, but his relief goods were confiscated by Israeli authorities.

Dan Winters has a son in the U.S. Army who has served in Iraq; Dan’s presence on this tour calls us to keep in mind the deep personal cost of war and the value of human life, in the interest of all those who must live with this conflict.