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On November 29, MN BBC served a lawsuit against the state on the basis of three counts. Violation of Minnesota law is its first count. The second count says that since the United States signed and ratified the Fourth Geneva Convention, that international treaty is the law of the land, and therefore investments in activities contrary to the Convention are also contrary to U.S. law. The third count claims that the SBI is exposing Minnesota taxpayers and pensioners to potential lawsuits based on an 18th century law allowing non US citizens who have been harmed by illegal activity to sue aiders and abettors. This count claims that Minnesota is providing “material support for illegal activity” (wording reminiscent of other charges recently faced by Palestinian solidarity activists).

IJAN TC, in partnership with Oceti Sakowin (The Seven Fires Summit), presented on Settler Colonialism: There and Here, Then and Now as part of the Up Against The Wall photography exhibit. This dynamic presentation brought together the parallel realities of occupation and colonization in both the US and Historic Palestine in the midst of an exhibit showcasing images of militarized borders (US/Mexico, Spain/Morocco and Israel’s walls in Palestine). The IJAN TC/Oceti Sakowin collaboration was amongst a dozen community organizations that presented at Up Against The Wall, bridging the intersections of different issues and creating a space of cross movement building.

IJAN-Twin Cities co-sponsored Remi Kanazi’s Minneapolis, Minnesota weekend. IJAN was honored to be invited by Mizna, the Twin Cities Arab American cultural, literary and arts organization, to be involved in the event. Remi is a poet, writer, and activist based in NYC, editor of Poets for Palestine, and author of Poetic Injustice: Writings on Resistance and Palestine. He is a recurring writer in residence and advisory board member for the Palestine Writing Workshop. On Saturday night, December 3rd, Remi read at the Loft Literary Center at Hear, Here: Indigenous Location, Politics and Poetry, part of the Equilibrium Series of spoken word artists of color. The next day, Remi lead a poetry writing and performing workshop. Members and supporters of IJAN valued the opportunity to be a part of this great weekend, and look forward to working with Mizna more in the future.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network joins with USPCN and others in congratulating the organizers and participants in the PennBDS conference for the widely successful Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Conference held this past weekend at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The conference was an inspiring gathering of BDS activists from around the country exchanging ideas on how to strengthen existing campaigns, share lessons learned from past campaigns, and envision the future world in which Palestinian self-determination is a reality.

In the lead-up to the conference, the opposition revealed that all it has left to rely on to undermine our work are slander and lies. In multiple Philadelphia-based papers, conference organizers and speakers were vilified and even compared to “Nazis” and “Capos” in an opinion piece by a UPenn professor, which the university president refused to denounce. Though clearly stating she had no intention to prevent the conference from happening, UPenn’s President stated unequivocally that she did not support BDS and went as far as to co-sponsor the anti-BDS conference featuring Alan Derschowitz, a Harvard professor who denies the historically known fact of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 during the founding of the State of Israel.

We in the BDS movement know how Zionist institutions falsely level the charge of anti-Semitism at those who defend Palestinian rights. These disingenuous claims aimed at silencing our movement are not only inaccurate but becoming more and more irrelevant and even self-incriminating. In his keynote address to the conference, Ali Abunimah laid out who the true anti-Semites are: those who claim that all Jews speak unanimously in support of Israel’s crimes, thereby attempting to lump all Jews into one group and silencing the voices of those who strive for a just future for all humanity.We applaud the BDS conference for once again demonstrating its commitment to the principles of truth, justice, and liberation and look forward to continuing the work ahead of us.

From Egypt and Bahrain to Occupy Oakland, popular movements remain committed to the waves of protest and demands for political freedom, economic justice and social systems in which people’s needs aregiven precedence over the greed of corporations and the ruling elite.
 
Repressive regimes are using police and military violence, mass arrests and incarceration of political activists to try to stop thegrowing calls for human rights, democracy and an end to US imperialism and Zionism. Meanwhile, the US provides economic and political support for the repression of popular movements in Bahrain and Egypt as it does in so many places throughout the world.   
 
In Bahrain, tens of thousands of protesters are now marking the one-year anniversary of their uprising.  In response to the call of Bahraini human rights activists to witness their revolution, “Witness Bahrain”has sent international observers, two of whom have been arrested and deported.  One of the remaining delegates is a member of IJAN.

To take action against US funding of Bahrain oppression, sign and circulate this petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/the-president-of-the-united-states-stop-any-new-arms-deals-with-bahrain .

This past August over 30 IJAN organizers from across the US and Canada met in the beautiful, balmy Twin Cities, MN for our first ever Organizers’ Institute. Members from IJAN Chapters in the Bay area, Chicago, Toronto, Twin Cities, Switzerland, and the north eastern part of the U.S. gathered to vision, plan and deepen campaign work that is happening across the world. For five days we focused on the work that is already being done with the Stop the JNF campaign, reflected on the Never Again for Anyone tour, looked at the history of IJAN from over the last five years and made progress on our next steps as a network. It was a wonderful opportunity to have these conversations in person. So much of our work nationally as IJAN organizers happens on remotely or when meeting to present or host an event, so we stayed up late and got up early to maximize the time we had together. Twin Cities IJAN organizers acted as a loving host committee and provided a great venue at Heart of the Beast puppet theatre. Since then we’ve been sending care packages across the country to express our appreciation and support for one another.

IJAN took on a good number of activities this past year, both in building participation in the organization and developing ourselves, relationship building, taking on campaigns to challenge Zionist organizations, and responding to calls for solidarity from Palestine.The “Never Again Tour” came to the United States and Canada early in the year, in the wake of a 2010 European tour, going to about fifteen cities. Hajo Meyer, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, spoke about the universal lessons we can learn from the encroachment of fascism; and Dr Hatem Bazian, chairperson of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), spoke about Islamophobia and anti-Arab (and those perceived as Arab) racism, how it is consciously fomented in this country, and its use in foreign policy objectives for both the US Empire and Israel. Hedy Epstein, another Holocaust survivor also made appearances. The tour was received warmly by activists, and with animosity by Zionist organizations. IJAN organizers gave talks at a number of conferences this year.At the US Campaign Against the Occupation conference in September, IJAN and AMP gave a talk called “The Legal & Popular Approaches to Challenge Zionist Organizations in the United States”. At the National Lawyer’s Guild Conference (NLG) in November, IJAN again presented with AMP, also working with The United People of Color Caucus of the NLG, to give a similar talk called “Legal and Popular Challenges to Zionist Institutions, Activities and Backlash”. IJAN activists also attended the US Human Rights Network conference that was a response to the anniversary of the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (description of the conference?). An IJAN delegation participated at a gathering of grassroots forces in Cairo in June, and was invited to speak on the opening and closing panels about Zionism.Internally, IJAN created a summertime Organizing Institute which attracted about 30 participants and helped to consolidate our membership, through workshops building our collective understandings and helping to shape an organizational direction which will allow us to increase our membership and capacity over the next year. Out of this, our Coordinating Committee ended up having regular calls which both discussed how our local chapters can plug into the national work IJAN has committed to, as well as time for reflection on local organizing and lessons to share across the network.The Stop the JNF Campaign, a long-term campaign to revoke the JNF’s tax-exempt status based on its racist policies, launched. Recently, the campaign sent activists to Palestine on a fact-finding mission. 2011 saw us publish an e-book on the JNF with activists and scholars writing about the role of the JNF in taking land from Palestine and erasing the physical historical memory of Palestinians.The Rafah Crossing Campaign, a campaign to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt was begun after the great uprising in Egypt this past summer. IJAN worked with the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and Haidar Eid from the One State Group in Gaza. A petition was started which was signed by activists from Europe, South Africa, the US, Palestine, and Egypt. Actions were held at Egyptian consulates in South Africa and the US, in solidarity with Egyptian activists and calling for the provisional government to no longer do the bidding of Israel at the Rafah Crossing.2012 promises to be another exciting year as we continue to grow our network and our campaigns!

IJAN organizers Sara, Mich, and Ilana attended the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation’s Annual Membership Conference. The US Campaign is a coalition of almost 400 organizations around the country that do work to raise awareness about the 1967 Israeli occupation (of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem) and U.S. support for the occupation. The US Campaign itself focuses its work on supporting BDS campaigns around the country, building a broader base of people and organizations to support Palestine solidarity work, and attempting to change U.S. policy towards Israel. IJAN attended the conference to co-present a workshop entitled “Legal and Popular Approaches to Challenge Zionist Organizations in the United States” with American Muslims for Palestine, and to consider joining the US Campaign as a member organization. The workshop was very successful and sparked discussion about the surveillance and policing work of the Anti-Defamation League as well as the campaign to challenge the legal status of the Jewish National Fund (Stop the JNF). We were very excited to see that Kristin was elected to the US Campaign’s Steering Committee at the end of the conference, and have since decided to become a member organization of the US Campaign.

Submit a Poster to the "This Is Aparthied" Poster Contest

Visit www.itisapartheid.info for more information.

Art has always been an important part of liberation struggles. It can inspire and convey concepts beyond words. www.itisapartheid.org and its primary partner, Lajee Center, are sponsoring a competition for artists and graphic designers who are invited to submit posters on the theme of “Israeli Apartheid.” These posters should reflect the nature, realities, and/or consequences of apartheid policies in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Posters will be judged by a panel of distinguished activists and artists. The winning entries will be featured in an online poster gallery and disseminated widely on the internet and various other venues. Youth from refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank will participate in the contest.

Watch the panel discussion – Seeking Israeli / Palestinian Peace: Varied Voices from the Jewish Community.This was an unprecedented panel discussion that occurred on October 16th, on Palestine/Israel. It featured local panelists representing four very diverse Jewish organizations – Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Voice for Peace, J-Street, and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. Part 1 includes prepared remarks from the panelists followed by some audience response. Part 2 features a wrap up of audience response and discussion. This segment also includes a post panel interview with two members of the International Jewish Anti-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