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The Palestinian BDS National Committee has called for a Global Day of Action to commemorate Palestinian Land Day.

PalestinianLand Day is the annual commemoration of the 1976 general strike and marchesagainst massive land expropriation by Israel in which six Palestinians werekilled and hundreds of others were jailed and wounded. Since then it has been aday to recall many decades of Palestinian resistance to historic and on-goingdisplacement and dispossession.

The phrase “British Mandate of Palestine” is as commonplace in Western and Zionist scholarship on Palestine as to be inoffensive and therefore barely given a second thought. Indeed, a quick internet search of this seemingly innocuous term reveals some two million results of wildly varying quality and usefulness.

Chicago IJAN put on a successful fundraising brunch featuring homemade anti-Zionist bagels. As we enjoyed the bagels, we read articles and discussed some of the developments of the Arab Spring. The brunch was a great opportunity to get together with some of our supporters and do collective education together. Additionally we were able to raise funds to support four members’ participation in the first ever IJAN organizing institute. Thank you so much to all of our supporters! {image_3}

On Wednesday, October 26th, ABC 7 reporter Chuck Goudie filed an inaccurate and irresponsible segment on supposed anti-Semitism at OccupyChicago, and OWS in general. The piece slandered Palestinian community organizer Hatem Abudayyeh and the Palestinian and Palestine solidarity movement more broadly.

After more than 100 years, the JewishNational Fund (JNF) still plays an integral part in the ethnic cleansing andcolonization of Palestine.  Aninternationally coordinated campaign against the JNF is about to launch and IJANis helping to build the campaign in the US and the UK, with additional activistsinvolved in several European countries. Campaign organizers recently returnedfrom a delegation to Palestine to build relationships with Palestinian, Bedouinand Jewish organizations in the lands occupied in 1948 (Israel) and in 1967(the West Bank) in preparation for partnering in the campaign against theJNF.  Look out forevents marking the international launch of the Stop the JNF campaign on LandDay, March 30, 2011.

Also, join us thisweek in celebrating Tu B’Shvat.  TuB’Shvat, known as the "New Year of Trees", is a Jewish holiday with along history. In ancient times, it was when farmers gave a portion of theirfruits and nuts to the poor. In the 17th century, Jewish mystics started havingservices, or seders, on Tu B’Shvat, eating symbolic foods.

In the 20th century, Tu B’Shvat was co-opted by the JewishNational Fund (JNF) as an occasion to raise money for the creation of the stateof Israel. The Jewish National Fund buys land in Palestine/Israel exclusivelyfor Jewish use. Through calling on Jews worldwide to donate and "plant atree in Israel", the JNF has helped create an apartheid system inPalestine/Israel where Jews are able to buy land and houses while non-Jews,including indigenous Palestinians, cannot. After 1948 and until today, the JNFplants forests and parks over Palestinian and Bedouin villages depopulated bythe Israeli government. This exploitation of ‘environmentalism’ is a way togreenwash atrocities against Palestinians.

As anti-Zionist activists — women andmen of many religions and of none, in and around the Labor Movement in Canada, theUnited States and the UK — we are delighted to be represented here in Cairo atthis historic moment.  Like everyone who wants a better world for workersand our families, we acknowledge that when the people of Egypt (Shaab alMasri) in their millions revolt against injustice, it is a defining momentfor workers around the world.

We send thankful greetings to thepeoples of North Africa and South-WestAsia who have launched a new wave of international revolutionary activity which has had animmediate impact as far afield at least as Madison,Wisconsin (USA).  The occupation ofthe Wisconsin State House has joined the immigrant rights movement and others ingiving new life and energy to working class movements (union and non-union) inthe United States.  It was followed inArizona by students using the same tools as their counterparts here, occupyingthe school board and chainingthemselves in; while in Olympia, Washington State, students and unions occupiedthe state capital also protesting budget cuts. In Wisconsin, directly influenced byTahrir Square, students, young people, seniors, unionists and mothers withchildren, occupied a US State House for the first time in living memory andheld it for weeks, redecorating the building with picket signs, banners,slogans and other symbols of resistance in defiance of the state governor.

A small band of IJAN Chicago members and friends passed out flyers from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat to streams of commuters in front of the Israeli consulate on the morning of Friday, October 7, 2011.

Recently, Jewish anti-Zionist activists, includingorganizers of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), wereattacked in a video⁽ⁱ⁾ made by Gilad Atzmon. In this video, Atzmonaccuses us of "relentlessly putting pressure" on conference panelists, to"suppress freedom of speech" and "hijack the Palestinian solidarity movement."

Contrary to Atzmon’s misrepresentations, not only has IJANnot put any pressure on any of the people allegedly "silenced" and "pressured"not to attend the conference in Freiburg, but we had no communication at all withany of them. IJAN had a discussion that included Hajo Meyer, an IJAN member. Discussingour concerns, or for that matter voicing a public opinion, censors no-one, andwe will not ourselves be censored by this absurd accusation.

Meyer and IJAN share a commitment to challenging the Zionistmisuse of the holocaust. For two years running, Meyer toured the US and Europeas part of the IJAN "Never Again for Anyone" campaign, organized with ourpartners.  This campaign exposes andchallenges the misuse of the Nazi genocide of Jews by Zionist institutions bybringing together victims of genocides, including Jewish holocaust survivors,with Muslims struggling against Islamophobia. We discussed together the possible implications for our work if heshared a platform with an antisemitic ideologue and promoter of holocaustdenial. The Never Again campaign challenges Zionism. Holocaust denial, asJoseph Massad has pointed out, is "the strongest manifestation ofanti-Semitism" in the West andhas "no position whatsoever inside the PLO nor any legitimacy among thePalestinian intelligentsia."ⁱⁱ⁾

As we welcomethe Jewish new year, we look back at the year behind us to address ourcomplicity in the many injustices of our time by recommitting to our collectiveresponsibility for justice and humanity. In particular, we reflect on the commonplight and struggle of political prisoners and the many people across the worldwhose dignity is denied and liberty is threatened by mass incarceration andmilitary blockades.

We are inspiredin our struggle for justice by the sacrifice and courage of so many in the yearbehind us – the late Troy Anthony Davis, the Georgia prison strikers, Mumia AbuJamal, Ahmad Sa’adat, Leonard Peltier, the people of Gazaconfined to an open-air prison – and in front of us: the Palestinian prisonersand those jailed at Pelican Bay State Prison and other California prisons onhunger strike and carrying out civil disobedience in defense of the most basicof dignity and rights.

On September30, 2011, Palestinians across occupied Palestine – from the West Bank to theState of Israel to Gaza – put out a call for solidarity with Palestinianpolitical prisoners.  In response to this call, we Jews of conscience intend to startour fast of atonement a day early, on Friday, October 7, and take action todemand:

• An end to the isolation of Ahmad Sa’adat – General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine;
• A meeting of the demands of the civil disobedience and hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons;
• An end to the death penalty in the United States and all other places it remains a State practice
• A meeting of the demands of the hunger strike at California state prisons
• An end to the Israeli blockade on Gaza and unconditional and permanent opening of the Rafah crossing

AsJews committed to confronting racism, we regret that the Simon WiesenthalCenter is on the wrong side of justice yet again: It has demanded that Germanywithdraw from the international meeting scheduledSeptember 22, 2011, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of theDurban Declaration and Programme of Action on Racism (Durban Review).  The Simon WiesenthalCenter is using its clout and undeserved reputation to whitewash Palestiniandispossession and provide cover for racism and apartheid.

We urge the government of Germany topursue its obligation to stop the racism of today and redress the injustices ofyesterday by re-committing to its participation in the Durban Review.