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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#222222;background:white'>In commemoration of Palestinian Prisoners Day, please join the </span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>international call on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to divest from complicity in Israel's prison, detention, and torture system. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>Please sign the petition: </span><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><a href="http://www.addameer.org/gatesdivest" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC;background:white'>http://www.addameer.org/gatesdivest</span></a>.</span> <br><br></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Please sign tonight if you can so that your signature will be delivered by Seattle Palestine Rights Activists tomorrow, April 17.</span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>This is one way to show solidarity with the more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons in contravention to Art. 76 of the 4th Geneva Convention and in violation of other human rights. Approx. 200 of those prisoners are children, some held in solitary confinement and many held without access to legal help for months. More details below.</span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, the largest charitable foundation in the world (backed by Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates) owns shares<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/gates-foundation-invests-occupation-profiteer-g4s-just-dutch-charity-cuts-ties" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>worth more than $170 million </span></a>in the controversial security company, G4S Security. G4S, the world largest security company, has been the target of several successful international boycott actions and campaigns in recent years due to its complicity in Israel's illegal detention, torture and incarceration of Palestinian political prisoners<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/g4s-timeline." target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>(click here to see a timeline)</span></a></span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>Earlier this month Palestinian organizations wrote to the Gates Foundation calling on the Gates Foundation to divest from G4S<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=668" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>(click here to see).</span><span class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#1155CC;text-decoration:none'> </span></span></a>That letter to the Gates Foundation went unanswered. Palestinian organizations (led by the Palestinian prisoner organization Addameer together with endorsements from over 150 other groups) subsequently called on all peace-loving peoples around the world to organize protests this<span class=apple-converted-space> </span></span><span class=aqj><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>17th of April</span></span><span class=apple-converted-space><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'> </span></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>(the international Palestinian Political Prisoner Day) outside the offices of the Gates Foundation in the various countries where the Gates Foundation operates<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=670" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>(see the call to action here)</span></a>.</span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>Join us this Palestinian political prisoner’s day (</span><span class=aqj><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>April 17th</span></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>) in calling on the Gates Foundation to divest from G4S Security due to its complicity in Israel's illegal detention, torture and incarceration of Palestinian political prisoners - including <>200 Palestinian children.</span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9KxslVHRs8&list=FLqeyHJhqw9ADs3HUYAbIbOg&index=2" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>Here is Angela Davis speaking about G4S</span></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>and the prison-industrial complex. Angela Davis is one of the keynote speakers at 7 pm, along with Noura Erekat -- preceded by great workshops all day -- at the Rachel Corrie Foundation PeaceWorks conference this year "Yet Again as Captives: Mass Incarceration in the US and Palestine" <a href="http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/</span></a> )</span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>Some possible signs for<span class=apple-converted-space> </span></span><span class=aqj><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>tomorrow</span></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>, Thursday’s event could be: Gates Foundation, Divest from G4S and Israeli apartheid; Gates Foundation, divest from violation of human rights and international law; Gates Foundation, your investment in G4S belies your mission; an injury against one is an injury against all; divest from the prison-industrial complex; unlike Palestinians, the Foundation can walk away from G4S prisons.</span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>Last week, several organizations and groups delivered more than 10,000 signatures for the Gates Foundation to divest from another company in the prison-industrial complex,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023350265_gatesinvestmentxml.html" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>GEO, which runs the NW Detention Center in Tacoma</span></a>. We've now compounded that call to the Gates Foundation with this petition of also more than 10,000 signatures to divest from G4S. All organizations that wish to be regarded as humanitarian must divest from companies engaged in violations of human rights and international law.</span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>• Sign the online petition -- especially before midday<span class=apple-converted-space> </span></span><span class=aqj><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>Wednesday</span></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'> <a href="http://www.addameer.org/gatesdivest" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>http://www.addameer.org/gatesdivest</span></a></span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>• Read the Palestinian civil society request to the Gates Foundation to divest from G4S <a href="http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=668" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=668</span></a></span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222'>• Post on the Gates Foundation FaceBook page<a href="https://www.facebook.com/billmelindagatesfoundation" target="_blank"><span style='color:#1155CC'>https://www.facebook.com/</span><span style='font-size:13.5pt;color:#1155CC'>billmelindagatesfoundation</span></a></span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222;background:yellow'> </span><span style='color:#222222'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>