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Out of thedelegation to Gaza that CODEPINK led in May camethe idea to organize a large march through Gaza, with a significant internationalpresence including well-known personalities.  In the spirit of non-violent direct action, themarch would challenge the appalling and inhumane siege of Gaza. The idea, which immediately captured the imagination of many organizers,was the brainchild of Norman Finkelstein. We are truly grateful for Prof.Finkelstein’s creative thinking and willingness to put forward big ideas thatgenerate enthusiasm and engagement.

However, afterthe initial call, the framework of the march was challenged by highly-respectedPalestinian activists, Omar Barghouti from Jerusalem,and Haidar Eid from the Gaza.Their criticism, expressed with the utmost respect for the courage and goodwill of the organizers, challenged the organizers’ decision to delay engagingin a wide conversation with Palestinian civil society and activists until afterthe call was made and the framework formulated. As Barghouti and Eid noted,that also led to a number of problems with the framework and the call. The callfailed to provide historical context to the current siege, barely referred tothe occupation, and picked and chose from the history of Palestiniannon-violent resistance. It also used language that inadvertently reflectedIsraeli propaganda strategies, isolating Palestinians in Gazafrom their counterparts in the West Bank, EastJerusalem, Israel,and the Diaspora.

Ultimately,these criticisms led to a compromise that satisfied both the Palestiniancritics and most of the initial organizers. This compromise was reflected in a"context document" that is now part of the call. We welcome the concerns ofprominent Palestinian activists who represent significant grassrootsorganizing. We see in the exchange, negotiation and outcome a model example ofhow work of solidarity can deepen and improve through giving full attention tohonest and constructive criticism from those most impacted by the horrors weare challenging.

We have read the"context document" and express our full support for the march based on therevised call.

 

The Toronto-based Coalitiion Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is urging people to write letters protesting the Toronto International Film Festival City-to-City Spotlight on Tel Aviv. John Greyson, internationally renowned filmmaker, has pulled his film from the festival. Read CAIA’s statement, and the letter Greyson sent to TIFF’s organizers.

This is an appeal to Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales to close theoffices of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in Venezuela and Bolivia anddemand the removal of the names of their states and heroes ofliberation from colonialism from JNF sites.

IJAN-TC hosted a "Picnic for Palestine" on Sunday, August 9th inMinneapolis. Over a dozen other local groups who also work to supportjustice in Palestine and the region were present. The picnic wasdesigned to build relationships between activists and organizationsalready engaged in this work. "We see folks at rallies and protests,but we don’t really know one another," remarked one of theparticipants. Along with great informal networking, each group had thechance to introduce themselves. Around 60 people attended.

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Our July bulletin is available here for mailing or downloading.

Confront Zionism: Support the Palestinian call for boycotting Zionistand Israeli cultural, educational, sporting and political events and academicinstitutions. Confront Zionist organizations that support Israeli apartheid,that censor and target individuals and organizations for criticism of Israel, and thatcollaborate in US/European Islamophobia.  

• Partner with Palestinians and other targets of the US/Israel agenda or Islamophobia. Organize protests, direct action, etc. targeting Zionist institutions or an Israeli consulate. Read and distribute IJAN’s founding Charter.
• Organize a rally or direct action to target ‘Jewish’ institutions that support Israel in the name of defending Jews. Use these actions to demand that these institutions cease disguising political and economic support of Israel as Jewish cultural and community work.
• Take action that demonstrates solidarity with people and organizations that have faced attack for criticizing Israel or supporting the Palestinian struggle. Organize joint actions and events with these individuals, organizations, and communities. Use these actions to defend and reinforce the right of all people to stand in solidarity with Palestine.

Divest from Israel: Supportthe Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. 

• Sticker Israeli products using the provided on-line stickers or create your own.
• Distribute letters to stores carrying Israeli products that highlight the request to de-shelve Israeli products.
• Partner with existing local BDS campaigns targeting businesses, organizations or government officials that support Israel.
• Organize a public tachlit service, a ritual that symbolizes the casting away of our misdeeds, to spiritually divest from Zionist narratives and mythology and to atone for the ways that we have fallen short in countering them in the past year. The service can orient us toward a new year with renewed commitment to struggles for justice in Palestine and in the communities and countries in which we live and organize.

Put the Charter out intothe World: Use the founding Charter asan opportunity to voice and bring visibility to anti-Zionist politics and makeconnections with other struggles for justice in your locale and around theworld.  

• Organize educational events that make connections between Zionism, US imperialism, and struggles for justice in your own location-whether they be economic or racial, about gender or environmental justice, or about indigenous, immigrant and labor rights. (For example, in San Francisco we are organizing an educational forum on water justice-from Gaza to Bolivia to Oakland.)
• Organize a forum offering diverse perspectives and testimonies based on the founding Charter. (For example, testimonies might be heard of those most impacted by Zionism and/or struggling against similar experiences of displacement and racism-from the US Wall of Death to the Right of Return for Katrina survivors.)
• Organize cultural events that reflect the anti-Zionist, anti-oppression and anti-colonial politics of the Charter.
• Organize meetings with local public officials to introduce yourselves as an anti-Zionist Jewish constituency and let your officials know that they will hear from you on issues pertaining to Israel.
• Publish the Charter in community, local and regional newspapers and publications.
• Use the Charter to build relationships with Palestine Solidarity and other anti-imperialist, anti-racist, social justice organizations that can lead to joint campaign and organizing work moving forward.  

 

If your own suffering does not serve to unite you with thesuffering of others, if your own imprisonment does not join you with others inprison, if you in your smallness remain alone, then your pain will have beenfor naught.

On the evening of August 1st inTel Aviv, someone entered a youth group meeting at a gay, lesbian, bisexual,and transgender community center and opened fire, killing two people andinjuring many more, some critically. 

We mourn the loss of those killedand injured, and are outraged by this homophobic violence. As people who arelesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and/or queer (LGBTQ), we empathize withthe pain, fear, and rage that friends, loved ones, and communities are experiencing.We are heartened that people all over the world are coming together to mournthese deaths and to stand against the violence and hatred that caused them.  Maythis loss compel us towards greater justice, compassion and humanity!

As people who reject the Zionist premise of safety basedon violence and isolation of people from each other, we cannot subscibe to therepresentation of this crime as an isolated event, separated from the violencethat pervades the state of Israel.To sincerely engage with the question of building true safety, we mustrecognize the systemic aspects of this incident. Israelis marketed as a gay-friendly tourist destination and a beacon of democracy inthe Middle East. In fact, LGBTQ people of allethnicities and religions face discrimination and violence in Israel, just as we do in all otherparts of the world.

Furthermore, this horrendous crime took place in thecontext of a deeply militarized society in which a ban on assault weapons –such as the gun used in this attack – is simply unimaginable. In theterritories occupied in 1967, unarmed Palestinians, including teenagers andchildren, are routinely shot by the Israeli army. Israeli forces routinelydestroy people’s homes, confiscate their land and resources, discriminateagainst Palestinians in their access to water, and restricts their everydaymovement – much of this now accomplished through the building of an apartheidand annexation wall. These acts of violence against Palestinians are normalizedby Israeland its allies. They require a pervasive militarization and a culture ofaggression within all spheres of Israeli society. Israel is founded on the denial andpurposeful destruction of Palestinian existence and homeland.

Contrary to the mediated attempt to describe Israel as a force of liberation and progress, wesee objecting to apartheid Israelas an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people, including LGBTQPalestinians. LGBTQ Palestinians are not going to be “saved” by a so-called gay-friendlyZionist state. Organized LGBTQ Palestinians reject the myth of Israelas an “oasis of tolerance.”

We are disturbed by the cynical manipulation of thesedeaths to bolster support for the Israeli state and its violent policies. WhenIsraeli politicians say that this is an unprecedented level of violence, andpromise to create safety for LGBTQ people in Israel, they are using the promiseof safety to hide the violence and domination that is foundational to theIsraeli state. When Zionist groups emphasize the growing gay nightlife in Tel Aviv,they are using the illusion of safety to draw support and funding to Israelfrom liberal queer and Jewish people around the world. We reject these lies, aswell as the manipulation of our communities for profit and to increase militaryand political support for Israel.

Just as we reject the liethat Zionism is premised on the safety of Jews, we reject the lie that Israel prioritizes and values the safety ofLGBTQ citizens of Israel. The safety Israelclaims to extend to LGBTQ people is false; we do not accept an illusion ofsafety for some at the expense of self determination for others.  No matter whoZionism claims to save or value, nothing can justify the targeting,suppression and oppression of the Palestinian people.  

We call on LGBTQ communities tostand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle againstIsraeli violence. Putting words into action, we call on LGBTQ communities acrossthe world to endorse the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions(BDS) against Israel until it complies with full international law, includingan immediate end to the occupation and colonization of Palestine, a dismantlingof the wall, an end to war crimes against the people of Gaza, and for thePalestinian Right of Return.

Specifically, we call on these communities to boycott internationalLGBTQ events held inside of Israel; to abstain from touring Israel as is marketedto LGBTQ people – with the exception of solidarity visits to Palestine; and tocounter and boycott the promotion of Israeli LGBTQ tourism, and Israelicultural and academic events in the countries in which we reside – unless they are in clear and undivided solidarity withPalestine. By these actions, we show a commitment to justice and humanityconsistent with our outrage against this hateful and deadly attack thatoccurred in Tel Aviv.

This statement was drafted by members of thefollowing organizations:

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, Toronto

Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism

 

and

 

The following BDS activists from Israel:

Ayala Shani

Edo Medicks

Emily Schaeffer

Hamutal Erato

Leiser Peles

Liad Kantorowicz

Moran Livnat

Nitzan Aviv

Noa Abend

Rotem Biran

Roy Wagner

Segev (Lilach) Ben- David

Sonya Soloviov

Tal Shapira

Yossef/a Mekyton

Yossi Wolfson

Yotam Ben-David

In May, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic andCultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) called on singer/songwriterLeonard Cohen to heed the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel and avoid complicity withIsrael’s violations of international law by cancelling his planned Septemberconcert in Israel, particularly in view of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza earlierthis year. Sadly, according to a July28 article in the Jerusalem Post, AmnestyInternational USA has agreed to cooperate with Cohen in dealing with Israel on thebasis of business as usual. Amnesty International USA will serve as sponsor ofa new fund that will whitewash the money raised at Cohen’s concert in Israelby using it to finance programs for "peace."  Being one of the world’s strongestproponents of human rights and international law, you shall thus be subverting a non-violent, effectiveeffort by Palestinian and international civil society to end Israel’s violations ofinternational law and human rights principles.  We call on you to be true to your valuesand immediately withdraw support for Leonard Cohen’s ill-conceived concert in Israel.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are threatened by a humanitariancrisis created by a two-year-old economic blockade that furtherexacerbates the effects of 60 years of ruthless colonial oppression. Inthe past two weeks, the blocking of all food and medical supplies toGaza raises this humanitarian crisis to a level that rings with thethreat of annihilation.

We are outraged but not surprised by this escalation.  As predicted bypolitical writers such as Ilan Pappe and Toufic Haddad, Israeli’sunilaterally designed and implemented disengagement from Gaza preparedthe terrain. With this withdrawal, Israel maintained control of theborders, air and water space, and completely isolated Gaza practicallyand politically. This has been accomplished with unconditional supportfrom the United States and its allies and the complicity of the broaderinternational community and Gaza’s neighbors.

The warnings about Gaza are similar to others throughout history.Mordekhai Gebirtig, the great Yiddish poet, wrote his famous song‘S’brent’ (It Is Burning) in 1938. He wrote the song in response to the1936 pogrom in the town of Przytyk, warning against the comingcatastrophe that would befall the Jews in Europe.

The end of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas – Israel’sjustification for belligerence – was in fact provoked by Israel duringthe United States presidential election. Israel is acting in bad faith,attacking Gaza’s civilians and using the Palestinian response tojustify ratcheting up the suffering. Israel’s actions in Gaza are anassault on life itself. They are an unconscionable crime againsthumanity and a form of collective punishment.

Israel has taken a lesson from the Nazi government in Warsaw andother oppressive regimes by kidnapping and holding hostage humanitarianaid workers and international human rights observers. Such a tacticprevents their witnessing of and communication about what is happeningin Gaza.

The latest naked display of violence by Israel and the arrogantcontempt of Israel’s leaders for the humanity of the people of Gaza andtherefore for the humanity of us all should move world bodies,non-governmental organizations, faith-based groups, and all people ofconscience to take immediate action.

Those who have supported Israel’s refusal to deal with thedemocratically elected Hamas government should now understand that thestarving of Gaza is the inevitable outcome of that support.

Stop the assault on and blockade of Gaza now! Stop the holding of humanitarian aid workers and human rights observers hostage!

Only a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel has a chance of stopping Israel’s violence.

If Mordechai Gebirtig, the Jewish artist and revolutionary, were alive today, he would be writing ‘S’brent’ for Gaza.

The Tayyar International Conference has been organized as part ofthe founding process of the Progressive National Democratic Movement(PNDM – Tayyar).The Tayyar was initiated as a positive response to the need to reformthe Palestinian political system to continue the battle of nationalliberation and independence, and to effectively defend their legitimaterights and human dignities. Its members are from diverse backgroundsand are working within their parties or as independent activists oncommunity and national levels. The Tayyar sides with the issues of theworkers, the peasants and the poor, it struggles with the sons anddaughters of our people’s middle class, and it joins forces with allthose who fight corruption, which affects the interests of theoverwhelming majority of our people.The Tayyar is part of the Arab and international anti-imperialist andanti-Zionist movement for a new global order. More information can befound athttp://tayyar-internationalconference.blogspot.com/2009/06/declaration-of-establishment-of.html.

IJAN has submitted to the conference the following statement of support:

TheInternational Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is a growing network of Jewswhose identities are not based on Zionism but on long histories of Jewishparticipation in liberation struggles from EasternEurope and Iraqto Brooklyn. IJAN’s solidarity with thisconference reflects our commitment to these legacies and to our participationin current struggles against racism, colonization, and imperialism. Central tothis commitment is solidarity with Arab liberation struggles against USimperialism and Zionism.

Morespecifically, we stand in solidarity with Tayyar’s commitment to resistance andliberation through "a national progressive democratic project based onpluralism, tolerance, and openness in a society which believes in socialjustice, equality between men and women as well as respect for human rights andpersonal and collective democratic freedoms." We support this historic effortto overcome the externally orchestrated divisions of Palestinian societybetween people living in the West Bank, Gaza,East Jerusalem, inside of Israeland in Diaspora.