From November 20-22, IJAN organizers attended the Campus BDS Conference at Hampshire College, the first US campus to divest from Israel.The conference was an inspiring gathering of students from more than 50colleges and universities, and Palestine solidarity movement activistsfrom across the U.S., working together to expand and solidify Boycott,Divestment, and Sanctions work on our campuses and in our communities.  Hampshireorganizers shared lessons from their divestment campaign and looked tothe work ahead of them to maintain divestment and grow the explicitcommitment of the campus to Palestinian liberation. At the conference, IJAN organizers facilitated severalrequested workshops.  

AnIJAN presentation on "White Anti-Racism and Jewish Anti-Zionism:Building Alliance and Joint Struggle" encouraged a lively discussionabout bringing anti-racist and anti-Zionist analyses into our Palestine solidarity, BDS and broader campus work.The workshop focused on identifying the role that we each play in alarger program of liberation from the location that we are in(community, social, economic, geographic, etc.).  In our discussion, weencouraged the expression of BDS work as part of multiple strugglesagainst occupation, colonization, imperialism and racism, and weemphasized building joint struggle between the Palestine liberationmovement and other struggles for self-determination.

In collaboration with UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), IJAN also facilitated a workshop entitled "Dealing with Opposition and Backlash," in which we presented IJAN's principles, strategy, methods and examples of defense for groups politically targeted by Zionist organizations. Inthis workshop, members of Berkeley SJP spoke about their experiencesand strategies for dealing with Zionist organizations at UC Berkeley,and some lessons learned for Palestine solidarity work on campuses moregenerally.

Lastly,IJAN and Berkeley SJP co-facilitated a workshop called "Building andSustaining Organizations," in which we shared IJAN and Berkeley SJP'sapproaches and principles for maintaining democratic and meaningfulorganizing. IJAN organizers were inspired by and excitedto be a part of the Hampshire conference, and to have this opportunityto work towards making the national campus BDS movement more connected,informed, and accountable to the Palestinian call and movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.