Here are three pieces that may be of interest.

1) Death in a cemetery -- the killing of Prof. Khaled Salah
2) Presbyterians divest themselves from Israel
3) United Methodist Church Resolutions regarding Israel

If you wish to continue receiving news like this from Palestine,
please refer to the instructions on my website
(http://www.bobmay.info) for joining Douglas Dicks' mailing list.
Thanks,
Bob

=========================================================

Death in a cemetery
By Gideon Levy
Friday Magazine
Ha'aretz -- Friday - July 23, 2004

How many of us can imagine the night of horror that the Salah family
endured? To lie on the floor of the living room for what seemed an
eternity, embracing as one being, trembling with fear as the house
was blasted with bullets and missiles; to watch the sniper's laser
ray doing its dance of death across the apartment, searching out its
victims; to see the missiles slamming into the walls of the house,
missile after missile, as though an earthquake had struck; to get to
their feet in the dark following the order to evacuate the building
before it was demolished; to try to open the front door and discover
that it had been twisted out of shape by the gunfire and couldn't be
opened; to open a window and try to shout to the snipers, in the dark
of the night, that the door was jammed; to see the father of the
family collapse from a bullet fired into his neck by a sniper; to see
the son collapse a few minutes later from a bullet in his cheek fired
by a sniper; to watch, helpless, as your son lies on the floor, the
life ebbing out of him, next to his dead father, and to cry for help,
but to find that the soldiers will not allow anyone to enter; then to
undergo an interrogation and humiliation; and to discover that the
entire contents of the house had been destroyed.

That was the night of horror of the Salah family: the father, Prof.
Khaled Salah, 51 at his death, founder of the Department of
Electrical Engineering at An-Najah University in Nablus; his wife,
Salam, and their three children, Diana, 23, Mohammed, 16, and Ali,
11, all of whom were at home that night. Fortunately for the
firstborn, Amer, he was in Boston, where he is an engineering
student. It was a night of horror on which the father, possessor of a
Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and a member of the
Israeli-Palestinian Peace Committee at An-Najah, was killed, along
with his son, Mohammed, a boy who loved soccer and dreamed of
becoming a pharmacist, who lay dying on the floor for lack of medical
treatment, which the soldiers denied him.

Maybe you saw them. Two years ago, during the Mondial (the World Cup
of soccer), Channel 2 News correspondent Itai Engel broadcast a
report of his impressions from a house in Nablus where he had watched
the game between Brazil and Turkey as a guest of the Salah family.
Engel was flabbergasted this week when told what had happened to the
family that hosted him. The boy too? The boy, too. He said he had
been charmed by them, by the father and his son, both of them avid
soccer fans. When asked about the possibility of a game between
Israel and Palestine, Khaled consulted with Mohammed and then
replied, "We're better, but it'll be best if you win, because we'll
be in for it if we beat you." They talked about peace and about
soccer.

Salam, the widow and bereaved mother, a survivor of that night, found
it difficult this week to remember the television piece and her loved
ones' remarks about peace. It's important for her that the Israelis
know that Khaled was a man of peace. Between fits of crying, still in
shock, it's important for her to tell the Israelis in detail what
happened in the pre-dawn hours of July 6 in her home on Saka Street,
in Nablus.



Salam Salah got home from a wedding in the city a little before
midnight. Only she and Diana had attended the family wedding.
Mohammed stayed home with his father, watching television and waiting
for the candies his mother would bring from the party. Mohammed was
very fond of the white and pink wedding sweets stuffed with walnuts.
No one could have imagined that those would be the last candies he
would ever eat. Diana, who, like her brother Amer, was born in
California - both are American citizens - holds a degree in business
administration from An-Najah. She, too, was getting ready for her own
wedding, a large-scale affair that was set for next month.

They soon went to sleep. Mohammed was an anxiety-ridden boy. Born
into the first intifada in the tough city of Nablus, reaching
adolescence as the second intifada erupted, he was a habitual nail-
biter. He sometimes got nosebleeds, when the tension in Nablus rose.
Salam says it might have been because they overprotected the boy.

At a quarter to two they woke up in a fright to the sound of a
powerful blast. Salam and Khaled leaped out of bed and looked out the
window of their bedroom. They saw nothing. From the window of Diana's
room they spotted dark forms of soldiers surrounding the building. It
was only from the kitchen window that the full picture became
clear. "It's like hell," Khaled whispered to his wife. The whole area
was swarming with snipers, tanks, helicopters and other army forces
that had come to apprehend or liquidate wanted individuals who were
probably hiding in the ground-floor apartment.

Their building is situated high on Saka Street, wedged on the
hillside, with Nablus spread out below. The residences in the
building are spacious. Two neighbors are physicians, and Sami Aaker,
the owner of a sewing factory that produces garments for Israeli
fashion houses is another neighbor. Aaker's home now lies in ruins,
like that of the Salah family.

Khaled herded the children into the living room and they lay on the
floor, folded into one another, five members of a family like one
body. From time to time, another missile or shell hit the apartment
and exploded, casting a lurid light, like fireworks. Occasionally
searchlights or the snipers' red laser rays lit up the darkened
living room. The electricity came and went. The door of the
refrigerator, damaged along with everything else in the house, opened
wide and the yellow light supplied a bit of illumination. Salam and
Khaled called everyone they could think of on Mohammed's mobile
phone, trying to find out what was happening. The shooting didn't
stop for a second, and their home was being gradually destroyed. They
called relatives, asking them to do something, fast.

One relative called the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, but even the
long arm of all-powerful America, whose nationals were in the
besieged apartment, was of no avail. One missile had already slashed
into the bedroom, another into the kitchen. Khaled's mobile phone
rang in the bedroom, but no one could get to it. They cried, prayed,
shouted, fell silent. And embraced one another. They had a Koran and
they read verses from it in loud voices, so people would hear.

"It was a nightmare. I will never recover from it. No horror movie I
have seen can compare to it," says Salam, who wears black mourning
clothes. Five missiles had already struck the house. Khaled tried to
calm them: "It's only property damage, no one has been hurt." Salam
says he was strong and knew no fear. They just didn't want him to
move and risk being hurt.

They heard the windows shattering, the water streaming from pipes
that had burst and the perfumes flowing out of bottles that broke one
after the other, their scents wafting through the apartment. From
above they heard the sound of a helicopter. The battle for the house
was at its height. "We phoned and phoned but everyone was helpless.
It was war, and my feeling was that none of us would survive it." It
went on that way for an hour and a quarter, until 3 A.M.

When quiet fell, Salam shouted, "Please, please, we are a family of
peace. My name is Salam, shalom." The quiet continued for a bit, and
then the shooting resumed. Immediately afterward, the Israeli force
ordered everyone to leave the building, because it was going to be
blown up. The order was given through a loudspeaker, in
Arabic. "Anyone who doesn't come out will have the building blown up
with him inside," the soldiers threatened.

Khaled got up first. "We're all right, everyone is all right," he
whispered. He walked toward the corridor and turned on a light. Salam
told the children to wait until he could see what was happening. But
the shooting started again and Khaled hurried back to the living
room. When the shooting died down he again made his way toward the
front door and tried to open it. However, the door had been bent out
of shape by the gunfire and the key didn't work.

Unable to open the door, and taking seriously the soldiers' threat to
blow up the house with them inside, Khaled went to the bedroom,
opened the window, raised his hands and shouted to the soldiers, in
English, "Sir, sir, we need help. Please come and open the door. I am
a professor, we are people of peace. We have American passports."
There was no response. Khaled tried again, this time in
Arabic: "Help, help, we need help."

A split second later, Salam heard three shots. Khaled fell silent.
She would never hear his voice again. Inside the room, the terrifying
red laser ray pranced across the walls.

Salam crawled over to her husband and found him lying on the floor,
between the bed and the window. At first she saw no blood, but he was
no longer breathing. Then she saw the hole in his neck. "Diana,
Diana," she screamed, "they have killed your father."

Then she noticed Mohammed lying on the carpet next to Diana. "What
happened, Diana?" she cried. Diana said nothing. Salam quickly moved
her son, revealing his mouth. Blood was flowing from his mouth and
his cheek was split open. She tried to stanch the blood coming out of
his cheek using paper towels. At first, she says, she thought it was
a superficial wound. The boy groaned. His eyes were wide open and he
emitted strange noises. His eyes pleaded for help, but his mother had
only the paper towels. She opened the screen window in the room and
shouted hysterically to the soldiers, "You killed my husband and my
son." She says she heard a soldier laugh.

"Shut up, woman," the soldier commanded her, in Arabic. And again a
red laser beam skitted around the room.

"I will never understand how Mohammed was killed. Maybe one day I
will know. Khaled raised his hands, so he was a convenient target for
them. Him they killed in cold blood. They let him finish speaking and
then they killed him. But how Mohammed was killed I don't understand.
I shouted like a madwoman: `Help, my son is alive, we have to save
him.' They laughed and told me to shut up. The soldier who was
laughing was standing below, on the street. I sat on the floor and
kept on shouting like a crazy person. I pounded on the door until my
hands were injured. I don't know how those curses came out of me. I
called for help, Diana and Ali were crying hysterically, and the
soldiers threatened to blow up the building with us inside."

Mohammed was still alive. Diana also shouted to the soldiers that
they had two neighbors who are physicians, let them at least send
over one of them or let an ambulance get through. Salam says that
every time their shouting rose in pitch the soldiers threatened to
shoot them unless they shut up. Finally the soldiers said they would
send someone. They sent a human shield, using the outlawed "neighbor
procedure," in this case the neighbors' 15-year-old son. The lean boy
pushed the door from outside, Salam pulled from inside, and at last
the door opened.

"We went out in our pajamas with our hands raised," said Salam. "The
soldiers spoke to us humiliatingly. I shouted that my son and my
husband are killed and they laughed at us, imitating my shouts. They
took us to the neighbors' apartment. Diana asked where she should sit
and a soldier said, sit on your bottom. When I asked to see the
commanding officer, they laughed at me. When I said I wanted to be
with Mohammed they imitated me. This is the most criminal and most
cruel army in the world. It was murder in the first degree."

At 6:15 A.M., four and a half hours after the attack began, the
soldiers allowed a Palestinian ambulance to drive up to the building.
The father and the son were dead. Salam was taken for interrogation
by "Captain Razel" from the Shin Bet security service, who questioned
her about the wanted men who had hidden in the apartment below. She
had no idea, she says, what was going on outside.

And that wasn't the end of it. "After all that they went into the
house and shot at everything they found. Everything. There isn't a
dress, there isn't a towel they didn't shoot at. At the computer, the
refrigerator, all our belongings, they destroyed everything. They
didn't leave us so much as a pair of socks. They destroyed
everything. A home of 20 years, all our memories, all our dreams, our
whole history. Imagine to yourself what's in a home of 20 years. They
destroyed it all. My husband's books. I don't understand why. They
just wanted to show us how strong they are and how cruel."

What do the soldiers who were involved think now? The sniper who shot
a father and his son to death, and those who denied the dying boy
medical assistance? The army issued a statement the next day: "Dr.
Salah and his son Mohammed were apparently killed by IDF gunfire, but
there was no intention to do them harm. Because of the shooting of
the wanted man from the building, the soldiers were compelled to
shoot in different stages at every floor and at the roof of the
building, and it's possible that in one of the instances the soldiers
didn't identify the sources of fire correctly or were forced to open
fire at suspicious movements. Because of the continuation of the
event and the lack of information about whether there were additional
wanted individuals in the building, it was not possible to send
medical teams into the building."

Sirens wail in the main streets of Nablus. Another funeral
procession - Yasser Tantawi, 21. His brother, Khaled, 19, was killed
two months ago. Both are from the city's Balata refugee camp. A
Swedish volunteer, Henryk Larsen, a medical student from Uppsala
University, who joined an ambulance of the Medical Relief
Organization, was an eyewitness to Yasser's killing last Saturday
night.

Youngsters threw stones at Jeeps, the soldiers opened fire, Yasser
was wounded in the leg and fell to the ground. The event took place
in the camp's cemetery. Larsen tried to treat the wounded man, but
came under fire and had to retreat. He saw Yasser's body jolted back
and forth as the soldiers kept shooting at him. They shot him, he
says, after he had already been wounded in the leg.

Dr. Rasan Hamadan, from the Medical Relief Organization, says that
about 10 bullets were found lodged in Yasser's body and that the
medical team reported that he was unarmed. Larsen, too, says he saw
no weapon.

The response of the IDF Spokesperson's Office: "During operational
activity by an IDF force in Balata refugee camp the force came under
fire and a number of explosive devices were thrown at it. The
soldiers opened fire at a terrorist armed with a Kalashnikov rifle
who was advancing toward them, and killed him. In the complex reality
in which the IDF operates, maximum efforts are made to avoid injury
to the innocent. At the same time, in the case of armed individuals
who are endangering IDF soldiers and those around them, it is the
soldiers' obligation to prevent them from acting."

Two days later, on Monday of this week, soldiers killed another stone-
thrower in the Balata camp cemetery. His name was Husam Abu Zeitouna.
He was 14.
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/455097.html>

=========================================================

Presbyterians divest themselves from Israel
The church will boycott Israeli products and U.S. firms investing
here
By Nathan Guttman
Ha'aretz -- Thursday - July 22, 2004

WASHINGTON - The Presbyterian Church's 216th General Assembly caught
American Jewish organizations off guard and by surprise. The
Presbyterians have never concealed their criticism of Israeli
policies in the territories, but years of dialogue between Jews and
Presbyterians had created an impression of an understanding between
the communities.

Hence U.S. Jewish leaders were astonished to find that the
Presbyterian Church has adopted the most censorious decisions ever
embraced by any Christian denomination in the United States against
Israel.

The Presbyterian Church has three million American members and is one
of the strongest denominations in the country. This time it did more
than issue declarations condemning Israel's occupation of the
territories. In a precedent setting decision, it took practical steps
to halt investments in Israel, and to discourage contacts with
companies that do business in Israel.

Divestment decisions regarding Israel have in the past three years
been reached by academic and research bodies in the U.S., but these
have mostly been small institutions with limited economic clout.
Their calls for divestment have had a marginal economic impact. Now,
for the first time, a significant religious entity that controls
large sums of money and commands the beliefs of millions of followers
has called for the imposition of economic sanctions on Israel.

"By reaching this decision we want to make sure that we are not
investing in activities of the kind we are trying to prevent. We see
so much violence, and we want to assure ourselves that we have
nothing to do with it," said Jay Rock, coordinator for Interfaith
Relations at the Presbyterian church. Rock said the new divestment
policy is motivated by more than a desire to insulate and detach
Presbyterians from the violent Israeli-Palestinian dispute - his
church also has an affirmative desire to "make our voice heard about
the direction of Israeli policy."

The Presbyterian General Assembly convenes once every two years. The
recent meeting was held in Richmond, Virginia. As is customary, a
human rights survey was presented at the assembly and the report
accused Israel of human rights violations in the territories.

The divestment proposal was forwarded by a Presbyterian delegate from
Florida. The assembly's Peacemaking Committee confirmed the proposal,
and brought it to the floor of the assembly plenum for a vote. The
decision to divest from Israel was passed by a resounding majority of
431 to 62.

Tracking Caterpillar

Israeli delegates were not invited to speak at the Presbyterian
General Assembly. Rev. Mitri Raheb, from Bethlehem, appeared before
the delegates. This Bethlehem cleric urged the Presbyterians to sever
economic ties with Israel. He singled out the tractor manufacturer
Caterpillar, saying its products are used to raze Palestinian houses
on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Sources in the Presbyterian
Church said this week that they do not know whether their church has
investments in Caterpillar.

The Presbyterian decision is economically significant. Well-informed
sources say the Presbyterian Church commands more than seven billion
dollars worth of financial instruments and pension funds. Most of
this money is invested in companies and now, in keeping with the
divestment decision, Presbyterian delegates will review each
company's records to ascertain whether it has ties with Israel.

According to the General Assembly decision, any company which earns
more than $1 million annually as a result of investments in Israel,
or which invests more than $1 million a year in Israel, will be
entered on a blacklist prepared for the church's leaders - the
Presbyterians are likely to divest from any company that appears on
this list.

While the Presbyterian decision's likely economic impact is not
negligible, the American Jewish community is more concerned about the
principle inherent in the policy. "This is a new phase of aggressive
behavior in the _expression of their feelings toward the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict," said Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, Interfaith
Director for the Anti-Defamation League.

He said that while the ADL and other American Jewish organizations
maintain contacts with the Presbyterian church, the denomination's
leaders did not inform the American Jewish leadership about
preparations for the divestment policy - nor did the Presbyterians
give the organized American Jewish community a chance to respond to
the developments at their General Assembly.

Along with ADL National Director Abraham Foxman, Rabbi Bretton-
Granatoor sent a strongly worded letter to the leader of the
Presbyterian Church in the U.S., Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, saying that
they feel hurt by the General Assembly's divestment decision. They
criticized the Presbyterians for drawing a comparison between the
situation in Israel and former apartheid South Africa. The letter
also attacked a call by the Presbyterians for an end to construction
of the separation fence.

Despite the Presbyterian divestment decision in Richmond, many
American Jewish leaders point out that there has been productive
cooperation with this church, particularly in the realm of human
rights. "Up to 1967 they were Israel's best friends, because they
always support the underdog," says Bretton-Granatoor. "After that
they started seeing Israel as a superpower."

Directed divestment

In the aftermath of the storm over the divestment decision, the
Presbyterian church plans to issue a clarifying statement soon,
saying that it will not boycott every company that has investments in
Israel, or earns profits from business with Israel.

The intention is to provide boycott exemptions to companies or
entities which deal in education, social welfare and construction in
Israel. The Presbyterians want to direct the divestment policy
toward "companies that might cause damage and hurt the peace
process," as Jay Rock phrases it.

In parallel, an effort will be made to mend breaches with the Jewish
community. Up to now, American Jewish professionals complain,
Presbyterian replies to objections about the new divestment policy
have been evasive and unsatisfactory.

"We need to engage and think together how these two communities,
which both want to bring peace to the region, can think together
about ways to do it," says Rock. He said: "It's clear that tension
exists right now, but I hope that an opportunity for dialogue will
emerge from this."

Yet, the thrust of statements made by Rock's counterpart, ADL
Interfaith director Bretton-Granatoor, casts doubt on this hope of
future dialogue. "It is accepted that reasonable people will ask
questions and be critical - but they have proposed drastic measures
and a blanket approach, without trying to balance or consult with the
other side," Bretton-Granatoor says.

Unlike other denominations in the U.S., the Presbyterian church does
not have a mass membership. Yet it is considered a highly influential
church, largely because its members include people with clout in
spheres such as politics and economics.

In recent years, the pro-Israel community in America has come to rely
increasingly on the support of the Evangelical church, which has a
mass following of some 50 million believers and whose leaders are
outspoken proponents of Israel's right to occupy the territories, at
least until the Second Coming. This "Christian Zionism" approach was
criticized at the Presbyterian General Assembly which concluded that
it has no clear theological foundation.

Will the Presbyterian decision encourage other denominations to adopt
divestment policies? American Jewish leaders do not seem concerned
about such a falling of dominoes. The Catholic Church, the largest
Christian group in the U.S. and the world, is currently drawing
closer to Israel. Various Protestant denominations in the U.S.
periodically criticize Israeli policies in the territories but do not
seem to have divestment decisions on their agenda.

Another decision reached by the Presbyterian General Assembly has
little to do with Israel, but has incensed the American Jewish
community. By a 260 to 233 vote, the assembly authorized continued
funding and support for the Avodat Yisrael church in Philadelphia,
which tries to convert Jews to Christianity.

Jewish activists have in the past demanded that this missionary
group, which describes its purposes as "messianic," desist from its
activities - they have objected that Avodat Yisrael uses duplicitous
tactics - among other things, allegedly posing as a Jewish
institution.
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/454513.html>

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"Peace in the Middle East"
United Methodist Church Resolution
~May 2004~

We join with Palestinian Christians as well as our Jewish and Muslim
brothers and sisters in feeling a deep sense of rootedness to the
land which has special meaning for our three religious traditions. We
celebrate the diversity of religious customs and traditions
throughout the Middle East.

Jerusalem is sacred to all the children of Abraham: Jews, Muslims,
and Christians. We have a vision of a shared Jerusalem as a city of
peace and reconciliation, where indigenous Palestinians and Israelis
can live as neighbors and, along with visitors and tourists, have
access to holy sites and exercise freedom of religious _expression.
The peaceful resolution of Jerusalem's status is crucial to the
success of the whole process of making a just and lasting peace
between Palestinians and Israelis.

We seek for all people in the region an end to military occupation,
freedom from violence, and full respect for the human rights of all
under international law.

WHEREAS, the prophet Isaiah cautioned against coveting the lands and
homes of one's neighbors: Ah, you who join house to house, who add
field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are
left to live alone in the midst of the land! (Isaiah 5:8); and

WHEREAS, the continuing confiscation of Palestinian land for
construction of settlements and the building of a separation wall
violates basic understanding of human rights, subverts the peace
process, destroys the hope of both Israelis and Palestinians who are
working for and longing for peace, both Israelis and Palestinians,
and fosters a sense of desperation that can only lead to further
violence; and

WHEREAS, continued and often intensified closures, curfews,
dehumanizing check points, home demolitions, uprooted trees,
bulldozed fields, and confiscation of Palestinian land and water by
the government of Israel have devastated economic infrastructure and
development in the West Bank and Gaza, have caused a massive
deterioration of the living standards of all Palestinians... and an
increasing sense of hopelessness and frustration; and

WHEREAS, targeted assassinations, suicide bombings and attacks
against civilians by both Israelis and Palestinians heighten the fear
and suffering of all; and

WHEREAS, people in the United States, through their taxes, provide
several billion dollars in economic and military assistance to the
State of Israel each year, which allows for the building of bypass
roads and settlements which are illegal according to the Fourth
Geneva Convention;

WHEREAS, the church continues to work with ecumenical and interfaith
bodies to advocate for Palestinian self-determination and an end to
Israeli occupation; to affirm Israel's right to exist within secure
borders; to affirm the right of return for Palestinian refugees under
international law; to call for region-wide disarmament; to urge
Israelis and Palestinians to stop human rights violations and attacks
on civilians, such as targeted assassinations and suicide bombings;
and to urge the U.S. government to initiate an arms embargo on the
entire Middle East region;

Therefore, be it resolved,

That The United Methodist Church opposes continued military
occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the
confiscation of Palestinian land and water resources, the destruction
of Palestinian homes, the continued building of illegal Jewish
settlements, and any vision of a "Greater Israel" that includes the
occupied territories and the whole of Jerusalem and its surroundings.

Be it further resolved, that we urge the U.S. government to end all
military aid to the region, and second to redistribute the large
amount of aid now given to Israel and Egypt; to support economic
development efforts of nongovernmental organizations throughout the
region, including religious institutions, human rights groups, labor
unions, and professional groups within Palestinian communities.

The United Methodist Church requests that the government of the
United States, working in cooperation with the United Nations and
other nations, urge the state of Israel to:

cease the confiscation of Palestinian lands and water for any reason;
cease the building of new, or expansion of existing, settlements
and/or bypass roads in the occupied territories including East
Jerusalem;

lift the closures and curfews on all Palestinian towns by completely
withdrawing Israeli military forces to the Green Line (the 1948
ceasefire line between Israel and the West Bank);

dismantle that segment of the Wall of Separation constructed since
May 2002 that is not being built on the Green Line but on Palestinian
land which is separating Palestinian farmers from their fields.

We also urge the Palestinian Authority and all Palestinian Religious
Leaders to continue to publicly condemn violence against Israeli
civilians and to use non-violent acts of disobedience to resist the
Occupation and the illegal settlements.

We urge all United Methodists in the U.S. to:
advocate with the U.S. administration and Congress to implement the
above steps;

encourage members of each congregation to study the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict from all perspectives by inviting speakers to
church events, reading books, using audio visual resources in
educational forums, and getting information from websites.
provide financial support to the Palestinian people through
contributions to the General Board of Global Ministries;

support, and participate in, the work of international peace and
human rights organizations to provide protection for Palestinians and
Israelis seeking nonviolently to end the occupation; and

reach out to local synagogues, mosques and Christian faith groups by
engaging in interfaith and ecumenical dialogue on how to promote
justice and peace in the Holy Land; and

That the General Board of Global Ministries, working together with
the General Board of Church & Society and interfaith organizations,
develop advocacy packets for use in local congregations to promote a
just and lasting peace and human rights for all in the region.

Passed at the 2004 General Conference meeting in Pittsburgh April 27-
May 7, 2004