It’s been a busy time for Bay Area IJAN this fall. In September/Octoberwe celebrated IJAN’s first anniversary with some successful action andreflection. An action took place at a Trader Joe’s store on September27 in Oakland, calling on the store to deshelve their Israeli products.About 25 of us went into the store, and talked and gave out informationto shoppers and workers, calling attention to the Israeli goods in thestore. We took over the front of the store for a good while and spokeout making our case as Jewish people why we supported a boycott ofIsraeli goods. We presented a letter to the store manager asking thestore to join the international boycott campaign. Bay IJAN also had afirst anniversary tachlich event and dinner to reflect on the past yearand renew our commitment to working on Palestine liberation.

IJAN was involved in planning with others and taking part in a quicklypulled together and very effective action to protest former IsraeliPrime Minister Ehud Olmert speaking October 22 at the World AffairsCouncil of San Francisco as part of a US tour. A Bay IJAN memberdisrupted Olmert’s speech and got arrested with 21 other peopleshouting every time he spoke in the meeting, while a number of usprotested outside the hotel with about 250 people furious that a warcriminal had been invited to speak. A good Associated Press article onthe protests was published in two Bay Area newspapers.

There was a benefit event the following day for three groups one ofwhich was IJAN, with the release of a new “Celebrate People’s History”poster honoring Jewish involvement in anti-colonial struggles. Theposter highlights Matzpen, the first anti-Zionist organization inIsrael which included Palestinians and Jews. See poster below and atthis link.http://www.justseeds.org/celebrate_peoples_history/02matzpen.html

Matzpen CPH Poster Released

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A new Celebrate People's History poster has just come out: Matzpen by Joshua Kahn Russell and Dan Berger.

Bay IJAN is evaluating our next steps in local organizing as we move into our second year.