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IJAN-Atlanta plans to support the criticalGILEE Campaign which will pick up steam as GSUstudents return in the fall.  GILEE (Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange), a program currentlyhoused at GSU, facilitatestraining exchanges between Georgia police departments and others around theworld, primarily Israel.  We will also be strategizingon how to address the upcoming JNF conference being held in Atlanta in thefall. For more information, contact us at ijanatlanta@gmail.com . 

 

 

IJAN is one of the core groups in the Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (BACEIA), which was initiated by Break the Siege, a group that emerged out of the 2006 attacks on Lebanon and Gaza. In the last month, BACEIA has identified a target for a long-term campaign. In addition, IJAN Bay Area is supporting smaller efforts to target organizations and festivals that break the boycott. As we develop our local JNF campaign, we will bring it to BACEIA.

On July 29th, IJAN went to two solidarity actions in Oakland and San Franciscoin response to the national call of action coming from Arizona against SB1070.  We went tosupport the movement in Arizona fightingfor immigrants’ rights and against the racist law SB1070 along with other new racistpolicies that criminalize and marginalize mainly Latino communities in Arizona.  We tooksigns “From Arizona to Gaza- No Apartheid” to make the connections between the criminalizing of andgovernment sanctioned attacks on immigrants in the USand Israel’sattackson Palestinians.  Theapartheid wall separates families and takes over land in Palestineand the border wall does this between the USand Mexico. There are also parallels between the ongoing repression, racial profiling, arbitrary arrestsand detentions, prosecutions, jail, against Latino people (and otherundocumented people) in the US  and that which Palestinian people face daily, stemming from racism,the lack of a legal status along with a belief that these groups are lesserhumans.  

We participated in the noon actionin Oakland at the downtown federal building, andthe San Francisco action in the evening in the Mission district of San Francisco.  Both actionswere also protesting against Secure Communities (S-Com).  S-Com is aprogram where the fingerprints of arrested people in participating cities/areaswill be cross-referenced with federal databases to determine legal status – which is being protested and challenged.

IJAN participatedin amobilization to press the Board of Supervisors (BOS) in SanFrancisco to take a strong stand condemning the attack on theFreedom Flotilla and the blockade of Gaza.  On June 8,with about 50 other people, IJANwent to a Board of Supervisors meeting and took part in a powerful speak-out inthe Board chambers.

As a result of the strongstatements made at the meeting, including by participants of the flotilla, anhistoric resolution was introduced by four supervisors, which was abreakthrough.  As part of the continuedpressure, IJAN lobbied supervisors with Palestinian and other Jewish groups topress them to back the resolution.  Wewere invited to speak at a press conference outside City Hall on June 15insupport of the resolution.  We againattended a second BOS meeting on June 15 where many people spoke again againstthe brutal attack on the flotilla and calling for the blockade of Gaza to end.

To read the San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s resolution, go to: http://www.sfbos.org/ftp/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/bosagendas/materials/bag061510_100767.pdf 

On June 7, IJAN was part of an action protesting the yearly Israel in the Gardens celebration of Israel at theYerba Buena Center in San Francisco. This year IJAN participated, with others, to makevisible the presence of Jewish people challenging the event’s theme ofStanding Proud in support of Israel. Some of our signs asked if Israelis proud, for example, of apartheid or ethnic cleansing. Other signs stated that we areproud to stand with Palestinian resistance.

IJAN supported Students forJustice in Palestine’seffortsto defend a UC Berkeley student government resolution which called forUC Berkeley to divest from two companies complicit in Israeli war crimes.  After the student Senate overwhelminglypassed the measure, they came under tremendous pressure from AIPAC and its ilk.The student body president then vetoed the bill, and a few senators withdrewtheir support.

IJAN’s work. In solidarity with the movement tooverride the veto of this important bill, we activated our phone trees and sentemails, turning out IJAN members to two all-night packed Student Senatemeetings on campus. We also wrote astatement in support of the divestment bill, using our Jewish-rooted voice toadvance the Palestinian narrative in the debate.

Thestatement is available at http://www.ijsn.net/C87/and was also featured on the campaign’s website, http://www.caldivestfromapartheid.com/

Thecampaign. IJAN was proud to standwith SJP and dozens of campus and community organizations. (off-campusgroups listed at http://www.caldivestfromapartheid.com/2010/04/27/statement-of-support-from-off-campus-organizations/.)  Archbishop Desmond Tutu and 4 other nobel laureates, along withHolocaust survivor Hedi Epstein, also offered movingsupport for the bill. While in the end, the effort fell just one vote short ofoverturning the veto (with an impressive 13 out of 20 student senators votingto reinstate the divestment bill; 14 out of 20 were needed), there waswidespread agreement that this inspiring campaign – with hundreds of studentsand community members organizing together to support the bill, and significantpublic scrutiny brought upon Israel’s crimes – was a major victory for themovement. Moreover, Israel’sConsulGeneral for the region was present through both all-night hearings; in a sense,the Israeli government was forced to publicly confront its crimes beforehundreds of activists.

Analysisfrom members of SJP is available at http://www.caldivestfromapartheid.com/2010/05/29/bds-at-uc-berkeley-the-campaign-the-vote-and-the-veto-by-youmna-derby-and-dina-omar/

 

Our yearly Seder took went really well with about 150 people in attendance.  TheSeder is a time when we are able to bring together Jewish spirituality withAnti-Zionist values by drawing parallels between the historyof Jews leaving an oppressive Egyptto the current struggle of the Palestinian people.  There were a lot ofpeople new to IJAN. People seemed to really enjoy it and once again it playedan important role in providing a space for people to come together. It was alsosuccessful in raising money to go towards the cost of the Assembly of Jews andthe Maia Project of the Middle East Children’s Alliance.