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Targeting of the anti-war and Palestine solidarity movement inthe United States took a new turn on September 24^th with coordinatedraids that swept the Midwest, involving scores of federal agents. Fourteensubpoenas were delivered to anti-war, labor and solidarity activists. On 3 and8 December, five new subpoenas were issued in the Chicago area – all toPalestine solidarity activists.  IJAN’sstatement of solidarity is below. 

For more information, visit the Committee to Stop FBIRepression at http://www.stopfbi.net/ .

 

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network condemns thefederal government’s accelerating use of the anti-democratic Grand Jury toharass and threaten the Palestine solidarity movement.  We will not be deterred in seeking justicefor Palestinians or for those who defend their rights.

The activists subpoenaed in Illinois, Michigan andMinnesota can count on our continued support as they face government repressionfor speaking out against violations of rights, unnecessary suffering andneedless loss of life. 

A Liberation Seder was held in Hamilton, Ontario on the second night of Pesach. IJAN’s Haggadah was used and each family received at least one printed copy. 22 people attended including members of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV, Hamilton and Toronto) and Not in Our Name: Jews Opposing Zionism (NION, Hamilton and Toronto), as well as Christian clergy and anti-war organizers. The food was amazing (Vegan Sepharadic Kosher for Pesach style), and we sang all the songs! (We had difficulty trying to change the words of the most traditional ones but we will continue to try to do so next year). Guests were so grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Passover outside of a Zionist environment that they ended up shouting "Next Year in Hamilton!"

This was the first activity of IJAN in Hamilton with one of the goals being to get to know the activists in the area and form long term relationships. If the reaction to the Seder is any indication, we’ve succeeded on both counts. The Seder was extremely successful and we intend to hold it every year.

We are already planning our next event. We hope to coordinate this event with IJV Hamilton, IJAN Toronto and IJV Toronto.

We feel very grateful for IJAN’s Haggadah and for the opportunity of talking about Jewish anti-Zionism with Jews, Christians and Muslims, opening doors and discussions that will go beyond the second night of Pesach.

Recently the David Horowitz Freedom Foundation published a dangerous and slanderous ad in the New York Times. The ad invokes the Nazi holocaust in order to attack supporters of BDS including several professors. Jews of conscience and others who share a similar commitment to justice must speak out in defense of justice for Palestinians and against such defilement and misuse of the holocaust.

David Horowitz and his money have been involved in attempts to undermine the Palestinian struggle and promote hatred against Muslims and Arabs throughout the country. Whether through funding the campaign to oppose the Park51 Islamic Community Center in Manhattan or through alleging that the Muslim Student Association is an extremist group, Horowitz took upon himself to foster the climate of intolerance and fear that leads to dehumanization and ends in persecution, apartheid and racism across history.

We are alarmed that New York Times, in breach of its own decency guidelines, would promote such open bigotry and character assassination.

This slanderous attack on proponents of BDS reveals that our movement is gaining strength, and that the opposition to BDS recognizes this.

Help us reach out to the broadest possible audience with a clear statement that draws the true moral lessons of the holocaust, “Never again for anyone!”, and asserts our commitment to justice for Palestinians and all targets of racism.

Please sign the petition below.

After signing, please contribute USD    to publishing an ad carrying this petition’s text in a widely distributed, national newspaper.

Text of Petition

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Yesterday, March 30th, was land day, a day on which we remember the six Palestinian martyrs murdered by the Israeli forces in 1976, while protesting peacefully against the confiscation of land and the Judaization of the Galilee.

Land day is a signpost in the struggle against the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that happens every day. Since 1976, over 50 Palestinians protesters were killed on Land Day alone. The confiscation of land and the effort to drive Palestinians out of Palestine and out of their homes and neighborhoods continue very day, and are particularly intense in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, Palestinians suffer brutal oppression, their homes are subject to demolitions and confiscation, their right to live in their city is denied and the apartheid wall strangles their neighborhoods. The wall is another way in which Israel assaults life every day.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network salutes the courage and steadfastness of the Palestinian people and stands in solidarity with the grassroots Palestinian struggle for land, liberty and selfdetermination. Yesterday was a day of unity, protest, anger, and resistance throughout Palestine. We stand in solidarity with the protesters. We condemn utterly the illegitimate use force by the Israeli army and police against unarmed protesters.

In response to the recent debate regarding the Palestinian civil society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, we offer a view from a Jewish anti-Zionist perspective. We welcome debate as a part of the growth and success of an international movement deploying BDS against Israeli occupation, apartheid and colonization.

A claim has been made byDr. Norman Finkelstein (known for his condemnation of Israel’s use of the Holocaust to justify and perpetuate Israeli atrocities both historicand current) that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign will not win over public opinion towards support of Palestinian rights because its goals imply destruction of Israel. This claim contradicts his own eloquent evocation of humanitarian and human rights law – which is precisely the basis for the Palestinian call for BDS.

South Africa was not ‘destroyed’ or ‘dismantled’ when apartheid ended; rather, the illegal nature of the state was transformed.  BDS does not call for the ‘destruction of Israel’; it calls for the enforcement of international law.

Meanwhile, a call has been made toZionist American Jews to implement a “Zionist BDS” that isolates and condemns Israeli expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in order to “save Israel.” The Zionist “left” argues that Israel is a “flawed but genuine democracy” with an “ethnically-based non-democracy” beyond the green line (the land occupied in 1967), and that the latter threatens the existence of the former.

 

On March 30th, 1976 Palestinians went on general strike and held non-violent marches and protests in response to an Israeli announcement that the state would be stealing more land from Palestinian citizens of Israel. Israel reacted to these non-violent actions with deadly force. Six Palestinians were killed, hundreds wounded, and many more jailed.March 30, now known as Land Day, has become an annual commemoration of that day. It is a day to not only remember those killed in 1976 but to mourn the loss ofland and those who died defending the land from the time of the earliest Zionist colonizers.March 30 is also the anniversary of the launch of the Stop the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Campaign in 2011 (www.stopthejnf.org). Stop the JNF is an international campaign aimed at ending the role of the JNF (or inHebrew KKL – for Keren Kayemet LeIsrael) in its on-going displacement of Palestinians from their land, the theft of their property, its cover-up of both, its funding of historic and present-day colonies, and the destruction of the natural environment.

Batsheva Dance company, on tour form Israel, scheduled three performances in February as part of their 2012 North American tour at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Bay area organizations and members of Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), Mondoweiss, Code Pink, Global Exchange and the Palestine Solidarity Network came out to protest Batsheva participating in the "Brand Israel" campaign. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers Batsheva "the best known global ambassador of Israeli culture." Protesters were supporting the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which is part of the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on apartheid Israel.

Also this month, protesters gathered outside Roosevelt University Auditorium Theater in Chicago to voice opposition to Batsheva’s presence. In New York earlier this month, protesters 80 strong showed up to let Batsheva know they were not welcome at the Brooklyn Academy of Music because of their complicity with Israeli human right’s violations. Demonstrations happening across the U.S. succeeds in letting supporters of Israeli sponsored cultural affairs know that the show will not go on unprotested. Though Batsheva is touring around the U.S., Palestinian artists are regularly banned from performing in their own homeland and are targets of violence, arrests and deportation.

A member of Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT) wrote an in depth article on Indybay.org about the San Francisco action protesting Batsheva.

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UnWelcome Peres to San Francisco from Intl Jewish Anti-Zionist Network on Vimeo.

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OnMarch 6^th, IJAN and US Palestinian Community Network, with a lot ofsupport from the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, pulled together an"unwelcome" for Shimon Peres in San Francisco.

Securityfor the event had closed off all streets surrounding the synagogue hostingIsraeli Shimon Peres and had stopped traffic on the main thoroughfare to theout of the way destination. We heard news that people who were coming to theprotest were stopped and asked to either prove that they lived in the neighborhoodor were visiting family, and were turned away.

Asa result, the demonstration was much smaller than it would have been, andhappened at the entrance to the barricades where attendees entered to walk tothe event over a block away. Nonetheless, it was an extremely successful eventwith local, national and international media interviewing protesters. All thoseattending the event had to walk through the demonstration to enter. There werealso Zionist defenders/protesters present in small numbers, but ourdemonstration was powerful and successful with great energy and clarityopposing the presence of Peres in San Francisco and this war criminal speakingin a house of worship.

Over100 people, Palestinian, Arab, Jewish, Iranian and other Palestine solidarityactivists demonstrated together for peace with justice holding banners sayingsuch things as "Boycott Israel," "Confront Zionism,""Jews Say No to Apartheid" and various placards stating concern aboutIsrael’s threats to Iran. Prior to the event Peres was dining in a localrestaurant and someone who had received the demonstration announcement stood upand identified him to the crowd as a war criminal.

Wesuccessfully sent a message that Peres or other Israeli criminals cannot cometo San Francisco without protest.

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On October 16, Twin Cities IJAN organizer Sylvia Schwarzspoke on a panel for the Joint Peace with Justice Committee of the Minneapolisand St. Paul Area synods, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, entitled“Seeking Israeli/Palestinian Peace: Varied Voices from the Jewish Community.” Thediscussion featured local panelists representing four very diverse Jewishorganizations—Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Voice for Peace,J-Street, and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. Schwarzrepresented IJAN’s views, and you can download her speech in full below. Toread a follow-up article on Modoweiss, click here.

 

You can also watch the panel online at – Seeking Israeli /Palestinian Peace: Varied Voices from the Jewish Community. Part 1 includesprepared remarks from the panelists followed by some audience response. Part 2features a wrap up of audience response and discussion. This segment alsoincludes a post panel interview with two members of the International JewishAnti-Zionist Network. (Panel filmed Oct 16, 2011 at Central Lutheran Church,Mpls. Post panel interview filmed 10/30/11). Both parts can be found here: http://ourworldindepth.org/archives/451

This event was part of a 13-city Never Again for Anyone tour in commemoration of international Holocaust Remembrance Day.  On this tour, Dr. Hajo Meyer shared the lesson of his experience in Auschwitz: Never Again for Anyone. He was joined in several locations by UC Berkeley professor, Dr. Hatem Bazian, chairman of the American Muslims for Palestine, and other social justice and Palestinian activists to discuss the urgency of this message in the United States and Canada today.  The event in Twin Cities can be watched here:  Never Again for Anyone Tour, Twin Cities

In part 1, author, activist and Auschwitz survivor, Dr. Hajo Meyer on the wide difference between Zionism and Judaism, the disconnect between Judaism and the modern state of Israel and the role of “the Holocaust religion” in justifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Lakota activist Coya White Hat-Artichoker opens. Sara Kershnar of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network moderate

In part 2, American Muslims for Palestine’s Osama Abu-Irshaid discusses religious tolerance, Zionism and Islamophobia in current American context. Plus, Q and A session with Abu-Irshaid, Lakota activist Coya White Hat-Artichoker and Auschwitz survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer. (filmed Feb. 2011 in St. Paul, MN).

Both parts can be found here:http://ourworldindepth.org/archives/383