WILPF NEWS
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
East Bay and San Francisco Branches
Work to Advance Peace, Justice and Human Rights
May 2025
A Personal Note: In the years I have been putting together our monthly newsletter, I have tried to highlight the most urgent issues and actions, as well as important WILPF US and WILPF International news. Since January of this year, this has been a very difficult task. All of the rights, all of the freedoms, all of our work for a more peaceful and just society and to preserve our planet, is being attacked and undermined daily.
In an effort to not overwhelm all of us, I have tried to select three or four issues to report on each month, and to suggest a few actions that you can take to have your voice heard.
To read more about issues that are central to our mission as WILPF members, and to learn about other opportunities for you to get involved, visit the websites that are listed every month at the bottom of the newsletter.
To join with your local WILPF activists, you are very welcome to come to one of our monthly meetings of the East Bay and San Francisco branches. Reply to this email for details. It’s time to step up our work to save our democracy and our planet!
URGENT: Take Action to End Starvation in Gaza
Israel is using starvation and humanitarian aid as weapons of war. For over two months, Israel has refused entry into Gaza all deliveries of food, potable water, fuel to run hospital generators and first responders’ vehicles, tents and other means of cover from harsh weather, women’s and girls’ sanitary supplies. Israel has refused doctors and nurses admittance to Gaza. Children are dying of starvation. The UN reports that 66,000 children are at risk of starving to death. Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, stated:
“No Escape: death follows families in Gaza wherever they go. No place is safe. No one is spared.”
URGENT ACTION: use the link here from Doctors Against Genocide to write to the President, Vice President, your Senators, Representatives and Governor.
SENATE RESOLUTION 224: Calling for the Urgent Delivery of Humanitarian Aid to Address the Needs of Civilians in Gaza
Sen Peter Welch (D-VT), introduced Senate Resolution 224 last evening, calling for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Twenty-six senators in total, including Welch, have signed to on the resolution.
Senators Bennet, Booker, Duckworth, Durbin, Hirono, Kaine, King, Heinrich, Hickenlooper, Kim, Klobuchar, Markey, Merkley, Murphy, Murray, Sanders, Schatz, Shaheen, Slotkin, Smith, Van Hollen, Warner, Warnock, Warren, and Wyden signed on. Please thank them and ask what more we can do to support them, Our two California Senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, have NOT signed on to this resolution.
URGENT ACTION:
Call and email Senator Schiff’s office and ask for a response from the Senator https://www.schiff.senate.gov/contact/
Call and email Senator Padilla’s office and ask for a response from the Senator
https://www.padilla.senate.gov/contact/
WILPF’s 110th Anniversary Celebration
In case you missed the 110th Anniversary event on April 28th, here is the recording from Ellen Thomas. Send it on to friends and family so they can learn more about our great organization and its long history of political activism working for peace, justice, equality and a livable planet.
UPDATE: Mohsen Mahdawi Released
A federal judge in Vermont ordered the release Wednesday of Mohsen Mahdawi, the Columbia University student who was arrested two weeks ago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following his citizenship interview, while his case proceeds.
“The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,” U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford said at a hearing Wednesday. “Mr. Mahdawi, I will order you released.”
Mahdawi, addressing supporters outside the courthouse following his release, called the judge’s decision “a light of hope.”
“Judge Crawford, who ruled to release me against all of the heinous accusations, horrible attacks, chills of speech, First Amendment violations — he had made a very brave decision to let me out,” Mahdawi said. “And this is what justice is. And for anybody who’s doubting justice, this is a light of hope, a hope and faith in the justice system in America.”
“To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” Mahdawi said.
Judge restricts Border Patrol in California
A federal court on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction forbidding the Border Patrol from conducting warrantless immigration stops throughout a wide swath of California.
The ruling came in response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed after the El Centro Border Patrol traveled to Kern County to conduct a three-day sweep in January, detaining day laborers, farm workers and others in a Home Depot parking lot, outside a convenience store and along a highway between orchards.
The ruling prohibits Border Patrol agents from taking similar actions, restricting them from stopping people unless they have a reasonable suspicion that the person is in violation of U.S. immigration law. It also bars agents from carrying out warrantless arrests unless they have probable cause that the person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.
“You just can’t walk up to people with brown skin and say, ‘Give me your papers,’” U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer L. Thurston said during a Monday hearing in Fresno that featured moments of heated exchange between government attorneys and the judge.
All people in the United States, regardless of immigration status, have certain rights and protections under the U.S. Constitution. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s red cards give examples of how people can exercise these rights.
ACTION: You can order or print your own here. and have available to give to documented and undocumented immigrants, as well as allies.
EXPLORE WILPF TODAY
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WILPF East Bay, P. O. Box 13083, Oakland, CA 94661
WILPF-SF, P. O. Box 590253, San Francisco, CA 94159
Before Enlisting: https://www.BeforeEnlisting.org/
National WILPF www.wilpfus.org
International WILPF https://www.wilpf.org/
Peace Women https://www.peacewomen.org/
Reaching Critical Will https://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/
WILPF East Bay, P. O. Box 13083, Oakland, CA 94661