Asthe first anniversary of Israel’sassault on Gaza approaches, we are sendingtwo requests to support the struggle for Palestinian self-determinationin the face of Israeli suppression – in both Gaza and in the West Bank. Please help ussupport these efforts andthe rebuilding of Gaza. Inaddition to these actions, we must keep a vigilant eye onIsrael as the … Gaza Action Alert
Join us to commemorate one yearsince the Israeli attack on Gaza. As part of the InternationalCoalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza the Gaza Freedom March, BayArea – needs your help to break the inhumane siege, which has been inplace since 2007. Although the Israeli tanks have left, attacks stilloccur – while the complete siege and closure of the borders continue.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
4-6pm
Union Square, San Francisco
CandlelightVigil to remember the 1,400 men, women and children killed in theattack on Gaza. Dec. 27 will mark the first anniversary of the Israeliattack and invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
12-2pm
Golden Gate Bridge
Park and meet at south end of thebridge parking lot and march together across the bridge. We will endthe year by marching alongside the Palestinian people of Gaza in anon-violent demonstration that breaches the illegal blockade.
Click "Read More" for the list of sponsors.
IJAN Twin Cities members have recently published online commentaries and produced cable access shows addressing Palestinian solidarity.
In addition to several pieces in our local media about the GazaFreedom March, member Sylvia Schwarz wrote an important commentary thatappeared in the MinnPost. The piece, entitled:“Iran: the wrong nuclear threat in the Middle East?,” exposes the wayAmericans are trained to perceive threats and how out of touch thisperception is with reality.
IJAN Twin Cities member KarenRedleaf is the co-host and co-producer of a local cable access show“Our World In Depth” which has been airing locally for more than 3years. Because both of the producers are involved with Palestinesolidarity work, many shows have been devoted to educating the publicabout this issue.
Highlights of past shows are listed below. To listen to a segment, click on the title:
An interview with local Palestinian American activists
An interview with two Minnesota activists recently deported by Israel
A presentation by Anna Baltzer
IJAN Twin Cities is very excited that one of our own – Sylvia Schwarz –is going on the Gaza Freedom March. Schwarz’ activism and writing has received local and national media attention.
Sylvia has published two articlesexplaining her motivation for the trip and the purpose of the march. One was published at MinnPost, a Twin Cities daily news journal, and the other at Twin Cities Indymedia, which was picked up by Indymedia nationally.
Sylvia and Ouahib Chalbi, who is also participating in the Gaza FreedomMarch, were interviewed on the TV show BelAhdan, which airs on ourlocal public television station. Click on the following links to watch Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the interview.
Because Sylvia has taken such an active role in organizing andpromoting the march, IJAN Twin Cities is now involved in a newcoalition focused on the work of the march – before, during and after.This new coalition showed the film “Occupation 101” as a fundraiser onDecember 6, 2009. The evening included the movie and a paneldiscussion. A national organizer for IJAN was a featured panelist. Theevent drew a large and diverse crowd and raised urgently needed funds.Once Sylvia returns from Gaza, we look forward to coordinating manyreport-backs and other activities with the broader coalition.
During the week of November 4-11, IJAN-Twin Cities was pleased to endorse three visiting speakers: Omar Barghouti, Cynthia McKinney and Ala Jaradat.
Omar Barghouti spoke on November 4th,sponsored by Teachers Against the Occupation, which includes IJAN TwinCities members. Barghouti spoke to a packed audience at the Universityof Minnesota, addressing the key reasons why he and other Palestinianacademics and activists have initiated PACBI (the Palestinian Campaignfor the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel). Click here to view Barghouti’s talk.
U.S. politician Cynthia McKinney spoke on November 6th, presenting a lecture titled “Breaking the Siege of Gaza.”
AlaJaradat, of Addameer – Prisoners’ support and Human Rights Association, spoke twice on November 11th – at Hamline Law Schoolin St. Paul and at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
IJAN Twin Cities endorsed and was represented at the Barghouti,McKinney and Jaradat events. In addition to learning from the speakers,we were able to help our allies with the Minnesota Break the BondsCampaign to collect postcard signatures for the campaign to pressurethe Minnesota legislature to divest from Israel.
As part of the "Overcoming Racism, Why IS It So Hard?" conference inSt. Paul, Minnesota, on November 6-7, 2009, IJAN Twin Citiesco-organized, with the Al-Aqsa Institute of Minnesota, a session titled“Palestine 101, Occupation, Racism and Apartheid – Palestinian &Jewish Perspectives.” Along with educating racial justice activists onthe issue of Palestine, this session highlighted the intersections ofPalestine solidarity issues with anti-racism work in general. TwinCities’ Palestinian and Jewish activists, who have worked together fora just peace, shared their personal stories and perspectives on thesituation in Palestine under Israeli military occupation along with ahistory of Palestine to counter the dominant Zionist narrative.
IJAN Twin Cities also created and presented: “Overcoming Zionism:What Anti-Racist Activists Need to Know.” We presented the workshoptwice –as a 90 minute session and a 60 minute session. Thisinteractive/ experiential workshop used popular education techniques toexplore how the dominant discourse around Palestine, Israel and Zionismupholds institutionalized racism. The workshop started from the premisethat participants were already committed to working for racial justiceand attempted to examine how our inability to confront and challengeZionism compromises our work for social justice more broadly. We sharedtwo versions of a historical narrative and examined how language isused to privilege some while marginalizing others. We prepared apower-point slideshow to illustrate the parallels between racism,colonialism and zionism “on the ground.” The workshop concluded with agroup exercise designed to develop tools to challenge the dominantdiscourse and engage in effective dialogue.
IJAN-Twin Cities member Lisa Albrecht was asked by Emigrant Theater to submit a commentary for the program of its presentation My Name is Rachel Corrie. Appearing opposite a piece by the local Jewish Community Relations Council’s director, Lisa’s words provided all of the play’s audience members with a critical anti-Zionist Jewish voice. Click here to read the program. See pages 9-10.
The U.S. PalestinianCommunity Network is appalled that the government of the United States not only continues itsunconditional support for Israel,but has engaged in establishing a Palestinian contra forces in the West Bank, aimed at deepening Palestinian internaldivision and engaging in arbitrary arrests and assassinations of politicalactivists. We demand an immediate end to all such programs and the immediatewithdrawal of U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton and his mercenaries from Palestine!
To endorse this statement, click here.
To donate to Labor for Palestine,click here.
"Sanctions alone cannot eradicate apartheid; that task is ultimately leftto the people of SouthAfrica themselves. But economic pressure andpolitical isolation of the South African government can hasten the day whenjustice and freedom reign in that troubled land." –Richard L.Trumka, June 23, 1987
"We call on other workers and unions to. . . do all that is necessary to ensure that they boycott all goods to andfrom Israel untilPalestine is free."–Congress of South African Trade Unions, February 3, 2009
"We urge all international trade unionsto heed the call of Palestinian civil society, including the trade unionmovement, by endorsing BDS. We further urge all trade unions and trade unionfederations to sever their links with the Histadrut, a Zionist organizationthat has always played a key role in perpetuating Israel’s occupation,colonization and system of racial discrimination, and that has justified andapplauded Israel’s war crimes in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009."–Palestinian Trade Union Movement Unanimously Confirms Support for BDS,November 25, 2009
——————-
Dear Brother Trumka:
As labor and anti-apartheid activists, we strongly disagree with your October27 speech denouncing the movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)against Israel .
The BDS campaign was initiated in 2005 by Palestinian civil society –including its entire labor movement. Inspired by the international boycott thathelped topple apartheid South Africa ,it demands Palestinian self-determination, including an end to Israeli militaryoccupation, the right of refugees to return to the land from which they havebeen ethnically cleansed since the Nakba of 1947-1948, and equal rights for allthroughout historic Palestine .
Support for BDS has grown rapidly, especially since December 27, 2008, whenIsrael broke a truce with thedemocratically-elected Palestinian government and attackedGaza . In the resulting massacre,Israel killed more than 1400 Palestinians,hundreds of them children; maimed and wounded thousands more; and utterlydevastated Gaza ‘s infrastructure, including theGaza headquarters of thePalestine General Federation of Trade Unions.