IJAN Twin Cities is very excited that one of our own – Sylvia Schwarz –is going on the Gaza Freedom March. Schwarz' activism and writing has received local and national media attention.

Sylvia has published two articlesexplaining her motivation for the trip and the purpose of the march. One was published at MinnPost, a Twin Cities daily news journal, and the other at Twin Cities Indymedia, which was picked up by Indymedia nationally.

Sylvia and Ouahib Chalbi, who is also participating in the Gaza FreedomMarch, were interviewed on the TV show BelAhdan, which airs on ourlocal public television station. Click on the following links to watch Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the interview. 

Because Sylvia has taken such an active role in organizing andpromoting the march, IJAN Twin Cities is now involved in a newcoalition focused on the work of the march - before, during and after.This new coalition showed the film “Occupation 101” as a fundraiser onDecember 6, 2009. The evening included the movie and a paneldiscussion. A national organizer for IJAN was a featured panelist. Theevent drew a large and diverse crowd and raised urgently needed funds.Once Sylvia returns from Gaza, we look forward to coordinating manyreport-backs and other activities with the broader coalition.

During the week of November 4-11, IJAN-Twin Cities was pleased to endorse three visiting speakers: Omar Barghouti, Cynthia McKinney and Ala Jaradat.

Omar Barghouti spoke on November 4th,sponsored by Teachers Against the Occupation, which includes IJAN TwinCities members. Barghouti spoke to a packed audience at the Universityof Minnesota, addressing the key reasons why he and other Palestinianacademics and activists have initiated PACBI (the Palestinian Campaignfor the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel). Click here to view Barghouti’s talk.

U.S. politician Cynthia McKinney spoke on November 6th, presenting a lecture titled “Breaking the Siege of Gaza.”

AlaJaradat, of Addameer - Prisoners' support and Human Rights Association, spoke twice on November 11th - at Hamline Law Schoolin St. Paul and at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

IJAN Twin Cities endorsed and was represented at the Barghouti,McKinney and Jaradat events. In addition to learning from the speakers,we were able to help our allies with the Minnesota Break the BondsCampaign to collect postcard signatures for the campaign to pressurethe Minnesota legislature to divest from Israel.

As part of the "Overcoming Racism, Why IS It So Hard?" conference inSt. Paul, Minnesota, on November 6-7, 2009, IJAN Twin Citiesco-organized, with the Al-Aqsa Institute of Minnesota, a session titled“Palestine 101, Occupation, Racism and Apartheid – Palestinian &Jewish Perspectives.” Along with educating racial justice activists onthe issue of Palestine, this session highlighted the intersections ofPalestine solidarity issues with anti-racism work in general. TwinCities’ Palestinian and Jewish activists, who have worked together fora just peace, shared their personal stories and perspectives on thesituation in Palestine under Israeli military occupation along with ahistory of Palestine to counter the dominant Zionist narrative.

IJAN Twin Cities also created and presented: “Overcoming Zionism:What Anti-Racist Activists Need to Know.” We presented the workshoptwice –as a 90 minute session and a 60 minute session. Thisinteractive/ experiential workshop used popular education techniques toexplore how the dominant discourse around Palestine, Israel and Zionismupholds institutionalized racism. The workshop started from the premisethat participants were already committed to working for racial justiceand attempted to examine how our inability to confront and challengeZionism compromises our work for social justice more broadly. We sharedtwo versions of a historical narrative and examined how language isused to privilege some while marginalizing others. We prepared apower-point slideshow to illustrate the parallels between racism,colonialism and zionism “on the ground.” The workshop concluded with agroup exercise designed to develop tools to challenge the dominantdiscourse and engage in effective dialogue.