manu

Inaddition to the organizing of the Assembly, IJAN, along with the U.S.Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), was a member of the US Social Forum NationalPlanning Committee (NPC). At the US Social Forum (which the Assembly preceeded),IJAN was a part of many historic and revolutionary moments. IJAN supported andparticipated in presenting multiple of the 25+ workshops that made up thePalestine Track and 2 Palestine-centric People’s Movement Assemblies (PMAs). As part ofUnited Against Racism (UAR), IJAN also supported the process of more than sixanti-imperialist, community of color PMAs coming together to publicly declaretheir commitment to joint struggle. 

IJAN organized a workshop on Unlearning Zionism to a full house.There were many participants who engaged respectfully and shared that theworkshop was transformative for them and expressed interest in participating inIJAN and related campaigns. Others reflected less then useful tendencies in themovement—those who bring their anti-Semitism to the Palestine solidarity andanti-Zionist movements, suggesting that Jewish organizing against Zionism ispart of Jewish power and conspiracies; soft Zionists who insist on taking spaceto question the validity of the colonial history that was presented. Overall,we are committed to continuing to offer this workshop across the United Statesfor those interested in struggling with Zionism as a form of racism andimperialism.   

IJAN,as a USSF NPC member, was also a part of discussions and process that led tothe decision to cancel the workshop by an overtly Zionist workshop attemptingto ‘pinkwash’ Israel. This ‘pinkwashing’ was an attempt to present this Zionistorganization as speaking for queers of the Middle East while having no actualconnection to these queer communities and only using the guise of ‘queerliberation’ as another attempt to further the Zionist agenda.  Our hope isthat this situation will allow us to grow and strengthen how we can supportincreasingly effective responses to future attempts by Zionist organizations todivide and infiltrate our movement. Part of our work is to build joint struggleacross our social movements in the United Statessuch that Zionism is understood as a form of racism and the Palestinianstruggle is understood as central to our goals for justice in the US.  

 IJANUS activists participated in demonstrations in Chicago, New Orleans and SanFrancisco to protest former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s visit to the United States.

Click here; http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10851.shtml for a video of the protest in Chicago.

Click here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10834.shtmlfor a video of the protest in San Francisco.

 

On April 15, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) held a conference atDublin Castle to implement the ICTU’s 2009 BDS resolution. Invitedinternational panelists included Omar Barghouti (PACBI), Mary-Jo Nadeau (Labourfor Palestine-Canada), and Michael Letwin (IJAN-Labor and Labor forPalestine-U.S.), all of whom opposed anti-BDS speakers from the Histadrut andJewish Labor Committee. For this meeting, IJAN-Labor and LFP-U.S. also producedbriefing papers on the role of the Histadrut and the Jewish Labor Committee;these are posted at: http://www.laborforpalestine.net/wp/2010/06/15/important-new-lfpijan-briefings-on-histadrut-and-jewish-labor-committee/.David Landy, a leading Irish BDS activist, described the conference as"one of the most significant events yet in Palestinian solidarity work inIreland." His complete report is posted at: http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2010/04/irish-trade-union-solidarity-with.html

Briefings on the Jewish Labor Council as well as on Labor Zionism and the Histadrut are available to read and download by clicking on "read more". 

On FridayApril 30 at the Port Studies Institute in Málaga, Al-Quds and IJANSpain held a conference with the title "Political and Strategic Role ofanti-Zionist Organizations in Solidarity with Palestine." The audience was moved bythe parallels between Jewish history in Spain and the Palestinianexperience and inspired by the confrontation of Zionism as part of the Jewishlegacy of participation in our own and collective liberation struggles.

 {image_1}

En Viernes 30 de Abril a las 19h30, en el Instituto de Estudios Portuarios en Malaga, Al Qudstuvo lugar una conferencia con eltítulo "Papel político y estratégicode las organizaciones antisionistas en la solidaridad con Palestina". IntervendroSara Kershnar, co-fundadora de la red IJAN.

IJAN es una Red Internacional de OrganizacionesJudías Antisionistas, cuya identidad y participación política no está basada enel sionismo, sino en la larga historia de participación de las comunidadesjudías, en las luchas emancipatorias y de liberación de toda Europa. Su solidaridad con la lucha de liberación palestina refleja su compromisocon todas las luchas actuales contra el racismo, la colonización y elimperialismo.

 

IJANis building relationships with La Junts, a joint Palestinian-Jewishorganization that formed in response to the 2008 attacks on Gaza. La Junts is involved in BDS and otherPalestine solidarity work and there is mutual interest in supporting oneanother’s work and joint activities in Spain as well as La Junts’ participationin international work.  

The Destruction of the Mamilla Cemetery: Desecration of a Sacred Site, an article written by IJAN-TC member Sylvia Schwarz: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/09/05/destruction-mamilla-cemetery-desecration-sacred-site

This thoughtful article draws connections to the uproar around building a Muslim community center near "Ground Zero" in New York, with the virtual silence from the global community in regards to the desecration of of the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem.It begins:"The Ma’man Allah (Mamilla) Cemetery was the oldest Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem with graves dating back to the seventh century, comprised of 33 acres and tens of thousands of graves. After 1948 the Israeli ministry that maintained the site reassured world leaders that this important religious site would be cared for in perpetuity.Less than fifteen years later, in the 1960s a park was built in part of the cemetery and a parking lot covered another part. These were followedby a school, football field, underground parking garage, and road. Electrical wires were laid in other sections."

To read full article follow this link:http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/09/05/destruction-mamilla-cemetery-desecration-sacred-site

 

In May, IJANArgentina published on its site excerpts of articles in Spanish about theNaqbah (http://judiosantisionistasargentina.blogspot.com/2010/05/15-05-10-conmemoracion-de-la-nakba.html )

IJAN helped organize andparticipated in the protest marches condemning the flotilla attack that wereheld in Argentina (Tucumán and Neuquén), and supported the central protestmarch held in Buenos Aires, as can be seen at these links: http://judiosantisionistasargentina.blogspot.com/2010/06/convocatoria-de-repudio.html 

Video and photofrom the march in Tucuman : http://judiosantisionistasargentina.blogspot.com/2010/06/marcha-de-repudio-en-tucuman-por-el.htm

Since the beginning of 2010, the federal government ofCanada has systematicallycut funding to Arab-Canadian organisations as well as to the UnitedNations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza. In March, theOntario provincial legislature issued a unanimouscondemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week – with only 30 of 107members present – prompting an Alberta MP to introduce a similar motion on thenational level, which subsequently failed. At the same time, students andfaculty at many Canadian campuses who have identified the policies andpractices of the state of Israelas apartheid, continue to be targeted by harassment, surveillance, andintimidation. This past May, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and SanctionsNational Committee (BNC) condemned repression in Canadaagainst Palestinesolidarity campaigns and stated:

"The BNC strongly condemns the actions taken by Canadian statebodies, university administrations and pressure groups to defund, repress andotherwise attempt to weaken groups and individuals that provide assistance to,or campaign in solidarity with, Palestinians. Such blatantly anti-democraticmeasures are not only repulsive per se; they are forms of complicity withIsraeli violations of international law and Palestinian rights and have farreaching adverse consequences for civil liberties. The BNC believes that thisrepression in Canadamust be brought to an end."  For the complete statement, go to http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1246.

The CPCCA arose out a conference called theInter-Parliamentary Committee for Combating Anti-Semitism that was held in London, Englandin February 2009. Eleven Canadian MPs, including Irwin Cotler, a Liberal MP andkey player in the pro-Israel camp, attended that meeting and returned with aresolve to create a coalition against anti-Semitism in this country. Termed the"new anti-Semitism" it is defined, in part, as excessive criticism of the stateof Israel – comparing Israel’sactions to Apartheid or those of Nazi Germany, for instance. The committee’sformation is a transparent initiative to create the conditions for legitimatingthe criminalization of criticism of Israel. The CPCCA has no officialparliamentary status but is a conglomeration of MPs from diverse politicalaffiliations and across party lines. In June 2009, the committee launched itsnation-wide inquiry into anti-Semitism by inviting written submissions on thesubject.

The list of witnesses revealed a transparently biased selection andexcluded submissions from people intending to substantively challenge thenotion of a "new anti-Semitism." The CPCCA allegedly plans to submit a reporton anti-Semitism to the Government of Canada, in anticipation of the next Interparliamentary Conference on CombatingAnti-Semitism, to be held in Ottawain November 2010. Michael Keefer’sbook, "Antisemitism Real and Imagined: Responses to the Canadian ParliamentaryCoalition to Combat Antisemitism" exposes the political extremism of theCPCCA’s prime movers and their transparent agenda to manufacture ajustification for criminalizing criticism of the state of Israel. Keefer, a professor at the University of Guelph,includes in his book a selection of the rejected submissions written byindividual Canadians and human rights organizations whose contributionsquestion the legitimacy of the CPCCA, its extra-parliamentary "mandate", andits overt support for Israel’sviolations of international law. All of these submissions were rejected byCPCCA investigators.

For more information about Keefer’s book and how to orderit, go to http://www.thecanadiancharger.com/page.php?id=5&a=381