CHAPTERS & SECTORS

20 Activists Arrested, Disrupting Jewish Community & Relations Council's (JCRC) 60th Anniversary

In response to Israel 's 60th anniversary celebrations, 20 Jewish activists were arrested, demonstrating Jewish opposition to Israel 's 60-year-old policy of dispossession, and highlighting the often-silenced struggle of Palestinian refugees. For over two hours, 20 Jewish activists disrupted San Francisco 's anniversary event, bunkering against the main atrium of the Jewish Community Center (JCC). In conjunction, over fifty Jewish and Palestinian supporters held a rally outside the center to call attention to ongoing Israeli policy of apartheid against the Palestinian population. With banners reading, "Jews in Solidarity with 60+ years of Palestinian Resistance," activists declared anniversary, "No Time to Celebrate."

Letter to Mercedes Sosa

Dear Mercedes Sosa,

We read that you plan to sing in a concert in Israelthis fall. We write you to ask you to cancel this visit.

Your voice carries with it the love, the pain andthe hopes of decades of struggle against oppression in LatinAmerica. Your songs opened pathways into the heart of many ofus--all over the world--to a deeper understanding and communion with thepeasants, the workers and the indigenous communities of LatinAmerica. Don't let your art become the ambassador of oppression,ethnic cleansing, murder and land usurpation by performing in Israel.

IJSN Statement on Gaza

The year 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe marked by the destruction or depopulation of more than 400 Palestinian villages and the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinian people from theirlands, communities and homes. Since then, Palestinians have lived under occupation, as refugees, and as second class citizens on their own land; Israel's assault against the indigenous Palestinian communitiescontinues with unremitting brutality. In Gaza, with the support of the US government and its allies, Israel has effectively cut off food, water, electricity,