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Une cinquantaine d’associations européennes en solidarité avec la Palestine, particulièrement avec Gaza ces derniers temps, ont affrété des minibus et ambulances avec l’objectif de les amener à Gaza par le passage de Rafah en Egypte. Ce convoi porte le nom de "Miles of Smiles" (en français « des kilomètres de sourires »). Les premiers chargements sont arrivés à Port Saïd il y a un mois et les derniers la semaine du 12 octobre. Avec Mohamed Ben Fradj, nous représentions l’association genevoise « Droit Pour Tous ».

Le convoi est composé de 103 minibus et ambulances remplis d’équipements médicaux pour handicapés, de médicaments et de matériel scolaire. 58 containers d’à peu près 70 m3 chacun ont été nécessaires pour transporter tout ce matériel.

It’s been a busy time for Bay Area IJAN this fall. In September/October we celebrated IJAN’s first anniversary with some successful action and reflection. An action took place at a Trader Joe’s store on September 27 in Oakland, calling on the store to deshelve their Israeli products. About 25 of us went into the store, and talked and gave out information to shoppers and workers, calling attention to the Israeli goods in the store. We took over the front of the store for a good while and spoke out making our case as Jewish people why we supported a boycott of Israeli goods. We presented a letter to the store manager asking the store to join the international boycott campaign. Bay IJAN also had a first anniversary tachlich event and dinner to reflect on the past year and renew our commitment to working on Palestine liberation.

IJAN was involved in planning with others and taking part in a quickly pulled together and very effective action to protest former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert speaking October 22 at the World Affairs Council of San Francisco as part of a US tour. A Bay IJAN member disrupted Olmert’s speech and got arrested with 21 other people shouting every time he spoke in the meeting, while a number of us protested outside the hotel with about 250 people furious that a war criminal had been invited to speak. A good Associated Press article on the protests was published in two Bay Area newspapers.

There was a benefit event the following day for three groups one of which was IJAN, with the release of a new “Celebrate People’s History” poster honoring Jewish involvement in anti-colonial struggles. The poster highlights Matzpen, the first anti-Zionist organization in Israel which included Palestinians and Jews. See poster below and at this 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.

Twenty-two activists werearrested at Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s speech to the WorldAffairs Council on 22 October between 6:30 and 7:30pm at the Westin St.Francis Hotel at Union Square in San Francisco. Inside the auditorium,activists began disrupting the event by placing Olmert under citizensarrest. Every couple of minutes, more activists disrupted his speech,barely allowing him to speak, by reading the names of the childrenkilled in Gaza last winter, reading from the recently publishedGoldstone report and displaying banners that read "Lift the Siege onGaza" and "War Crimes are Not Free Expression!" Activists were removedfrom the auditorium chanting "war criminal!" and taken to theTenderloin Police Station where they are being held for citation. Tenadditional persons participated in the action but were not arrested.

Olmert ordered Israel’s brutal attacks on Gaza beginning in lateDecember 2008, code-named Operation Cast Lead. Last week, the UN HumanRights Council passed a resolution endorsing the Goldstone report, anindependent investigation into the Gaza operation, which found thatIsrael violated international law and possibly committed crimes againsthumanity.

"Israel is an apartheid state guilty of war crimes and its leadersshould not be welcome in San Francisco," said Lisa Nessan, a Jewishresident of Oakland, who has traveled several times to Israel andPalestine, most recently in May. "For the past 60 years, underleadership like Olmert’s, Israel has denied Palestinians their basichuman rights, built settlements on their lands, and killed civilians –all to force them from their homeland."

A lively protest also gathered across from the hotel in Union Square,where about 150 persons carried signs bearing the names and pictures ofchildren killed during Operation Cast Lead. Olmert is making severalappearances in the US this month, and has been met with strong protestsat locations including the University of Chicago and Tulane Universityin New Orleans. "We join with people around the world who believe thatIsrael and its leaders must be held accountable for their actions.Israel killed 1,400 people during its attacks on Gaza last winteralone, and many more have died or suffered from the effects of siege,occupation, and apartheid on their daily lives," said MonadelHerzallah, a Palestinian activist who lives in Fairfield and whose21-year-old cousin was killed in Gaza in January.

Organizers also expressed outrage that US President Barack Obama hasignored the findings of the Goldstone report. The US has pledged morethan $3 billion each year in unrestricted aid to Israel. "Israel’s useof US aid and military equipment violates our own laws," said RaeAbileah, an organizer with CODEPINK whose father is Israeli. "Why arewe giving aid to a country that is destroying people’s homes andattacking civilians, while our own nation is struggling withunemployment and underfunded social services?"

Eduardo Cohen of San Francisco sums up the sentiment: "The war crimesin the Goldstone Report are not an exception, but a reminder thatIsrael’s apartheid law is itself criminal. We must not only hold Olmertaccountable, but all of Israel’s leaders, our own elected officials,and other companies and individuals that profit from these crimes. Onlythen can true justice be reached."

The protest was sponsored by: Arab Resource & Organizing Center(AROC), Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (BACEIA), CODEPINKWomen for Peace, Friends of Deiribzi’a, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), Northern CaliforniaInternational Solidarity Movement, Middle East Children’s Alliance(MECA), South Bay Mobilization, Stop AIPAC, CAL Students for Justice inPalestine, US Palestine Communities Network (USPCN), Bay Area Women inBlack.

Click here to read the article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Click here to watch the video produced by The Electronic Intifada.

Our September bulletin is available here for mailing or downloading.

William S. Duffey District Court Judge United States District Court 1721 RichardB. RussellFederal Buildingand United StatesCourthouse 75 Spring Street S.W. Atlanta, GA 30303   RE:  Ehsanul Sadequee. Case No.1:06-CR-147-WSD-GGB   Dear Honorable Judge Duffey, As a concerned US citizen and a resident of [STATE], I am verysaddened to hear about the verdict on Ehsanul Sadequee, … Sample Letter for Shifa's Sentencing

Aswe approach the first anniversary of the International Jewish Anti-ZionistNetwork (IJAN), we remember the anniversary of Sabra and Shatila and over 61years of Palestinian struggle against ethnic cleansing. We are reminded that the latest siege andblockade of Gaza is part ofthis ongoing colonization of Palestine.Through our actions over this anniversary we intend to honor the secondintifada, which reignited the international solidarity movement from which ournetwork emerged.

Theanniversary also falls during the Jewish High Holidays. For some of us, RoshHashanah and Yom Kippur are a time for reflection and atonement for theindividual and collective injustices we have committed or that happen in ourname. Through taking collective responsibility we seek greater justice not onlyin Palestine,but throughout the world as well.

Take10 minutes to send a letter to concert endorser Amnesty International and signan open letter to Leonard Cohen   ACTION 1: TellAmnesty International that Entertaining Apartheid Israel Deserves No Amnesty!   ISSUEDBY:  ThePalestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), Adalah-NY:The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East , Boycott! Supporting the … Stop the Leonard Cohen Concert in Israel

The IJAN Campus Network has published an "Open Letterto Members of University Communities around the World."  Those signing the petition are pledging theirsupport for campus Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaigns and defense ofstudents and academics who come under threat for criticizing the Israeli statein their academic work. We encourage all Jewish students participating in thestruggle against Israeli occupation and oppression to sign the petition, joiningin the growing movement of Jewish anti-Zionist activists dedicated to defendingthe struggle for a free Palestine.

Hello, IJAN’s first Anniversary Statement and the Call to Action are ready for use and are attached below. I put them here only because I was having trouble uploading them to the forum, but I will put them up there as soon as I can. The Statement includes, for the second side of the paper, … Anniversary Statement and Call to Action

Bay Area IJAN organized queer members and supporters in a powerful action during this year’s massive San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Parade. We marched with Jews March for Pride, a Jewish contingent of the parade that was unfortunately, but not surprisingly, overrun by powerful Bay Area Zionist institutions.