Backlash Defense Overview
14-City Never Again for Anyone Tour
We started 2010 with our Never Again for Anyone tourwith events in fourteen cities across Europe. Dr. Hajo Meyer, an 86-year old survivor of Auschwitzand member of IJAN Netherlands, spoke to his perspective on the Zionist "Misuseof the Holocaust for Political Purposes." For most of the tour his talk was accompanied by a video presentation orlive discussion with Dr. Haidar Eid, professor and activist with the OneDemocratic State Group in Gaza.Drawing on his experience in Nazi Germany, Dr. Meyer identifies many parallels inthe role of dehumanization and discrimination in the preparation of the Germancitizens to participate in the Nazi genocide of many and the preparationofIsraeli society to accept and participate in the ethnic cleaning ofPalestinians.
IJAN Students support Campus Divestment Campaigns

As momentum around campus BDS continued to build over this pastyear, IJAN offered strategic defense support to divestment campaigns. LastSeptember, the student network published an Open Letter to Members of University Communities around theWorld calling on Jews ofconscience to join campus BDS campaigns and stand firmly against the upsurge ofIslamaphobia at universities, to which we're still collecting signatures. IJAN activists in the Bay Area were directly involved in UC Berkeley'sdivestment campaign and also stood in support of the divestment efforts at UCSan Diego.  While these struggles have not yet been successful in winningdivestment from Israeli apartheid, together they served as an incredibleinspiration to Palestine-solidarity student activists across the country andcontributed significantly to shifting the terms of national debate on the stateof Israel. The overwhelming success of the student referendum in support ofdivestment at Evergreen was another inspiring moment of the past year and ishelping to sustain the momentum generated by all these efforts.  IJAN'sstudent network is in the process of accessing the current moment in campus BDSwork and determining how we can most strategically support this work asanti-Zionist Jews.  We welcome the participation of others interested tojoin us in these efforts.

IJAN Workshops at Hamphire College BDS Conference

In the fall of 2009, IJAN organizers attended the Campus BDS Conference at Hampshire College, the first US campus to divest from companies involved in the Israeli occupation. The conference was an inspiring gathering of students from more than 40 colleges and universities, and Palestine solidarity movement activists, working together to expand and solidify Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) work on campuses and in our communities across the U.S. Hampshire organizers shared lessons from their divestment campaign and looked to the work ahead of them to maintain divestment and grow the explicit commitment of the campus to Palestinian liberation. At the conference, IJAN organizers facilitated the following workshops in partnership with Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine: "White Anti-Racism and Jewish Anti-Zionism: Building Alliance and Joint Struggle," "Dealing with Opposition and Backlash," and "Building and Sustaining Organizations." IJAN organizers were inspired by and excited to be a part of the Hampshire conference, and to have this opportunity to work towards making the national campus BDS movement more connected, informed, and accountable to the Palestinian call and movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.

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